The first trailer for the movie adaptation of Jack Kerouac’s timeless novel premiered this summer, and it’s chock–full of cars, sex, drugs and Kristen Stewart. It’s hard to tell from the barrage of images that make up the just–over–a–minute trailer whether or not the movie will live up to the novel, but it certainly does appear to have stand–alone potential. The Francis Ford Coppola–produced film certainly has some high expectations to meet. We maintain cautious optimism.
What we love: An outstanding supporting cast including Mad Men’s Elisabeth Moss, Kirsten Dunst, Terrence Howard, Amy Adams and Viggo Mortensen was well chosen to hold up this classic. Also, the two male leads are being played by relative unknowns (Sam Riley and Garrett Hedlund), which prevents any preconceptions by the audience and allows them to make the characters their own. Also, the sixties grain and look contribute to the overall tone of the film.
What we don’t: We're still shaky on whether Kristen Stewart actually has the acting chops to portray a character who has to smile. Also, trailers full of moving images, music and voice–overs are great for action films, but in a drama like this you want a little dialogue to show off, you know, the drama of the piece. Showing us fifty images over the space of sixty seconds doesn’t really tell us anything besides the fact that they have a good trailer editor.