After catching the wrong ferry and missing a screening of Moonrise Kingdom, I ended up hitting the cinema in great time for "On the Road". If fate is a thing, this was it - I'd started reading the book that very day.

Fans of the book will immediately start counting dissimilarities - Sal lives with his French speaking mother in NYC, not his aunt. Marylou is played by the very brunette Kirsten Stewart, and her character is generally less golden than the Marylou of the book. Kirsten Dunst as Camille plays a more visible and traditionally minded role in the film.

That being said, the book would be very difficult to portray on screen as it's written, and Jose Rivera has done a spectacular job of capturing key interactions and events from the story and weaving them into a solid watch.

Garret Hudlund is an excellent casting as Dean, crazy, compelling, enigmatic, alienating and welcoming at the same time. Sam Riley plays Sal very well too, though the film places the characters in a younger frame than the book - no ex wives or ex lives really to be heard of.

This does modernise the story and make it more relatable to a modern audience.

Watch out for Amy Adams as you've not seen her before, alongside Viggo Mortensen in a part I'm so glad was not played by Johnny Depp.

See the film, it's a grand ride.