Doting Salinger biopic holds valuable lessons
It’s almost too easy to poke fun at Danny Strong’s biopic of J.D. Salinger, Rebel in the Rye, the actor’s directorial debut.
Aside from co-creating the TV series Empire, Strong is best known for his roles in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gilmore Girls.
Rebel holds an overtly empathetic view of the elusive author, but successfully conveys the emotional traumas Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) faced honing his craft under the tough-love tutelage of Columbia University professor and Story magazine editor Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey), and how the eventual success of Salinger’s best-selling novel Catcher in the Rye haunted his personal life.
Based mostly on Kenneth Slawenski’s J.D. Salinger: A Life, the film details the early setbacks for the young Salinger, better known as “Jerry.” Tribulations include his father’s (Victor Garber) lack of support, being shipped off to the First World War just as his writing career was taking off and finding out via a front page newspaper story that his friend, Oona O’Neill (Zoey Deutch), had married Charlie Chaplin.
With little to live for, Jerry survives the traumatizing terrors of the trenches by focusing on the fictional character Holden Caulfield, who he had begun to flesh out in a series of short stories before the war. He’s a wreck upon his release, but returns to writing after learning from Swami Nikhilananda (Bernard White) about the healing powers of meditation.
Jerry grounds himself and recommits to writing the novel that would define his career.
A fight with Burnett, the overwhelming overnight success of Catcher, a spate of psychotic Caulfield-like fans and some permanent emotional damage from his war-stricken PTSD transform Jerry from a focused, brilliant writer into an increasingly paranoid recluse.
Rebel mostly details Salinger’s short career in publishing, and either quickly glosses over or sweeps under the rug his many troubled personal and romantic entanglements. The film is content to reductively end with Salinger’s wish to fix his failings as a negligent father and husband.
In addition to being a lopsided portrayal, the film occasionally veers into corny territory. Take Salinger’s literary agent Dorothy Olding (Sarah Paulson), who advises the stubborn Salinger early in his career that “publishing is everything.”
When the author confides he’s exhausted his need to publish his work, Dorothy replies: “It’s like I’ve always said: publishing isn’t everything.” Groan!
What makes Rebel a somewhat inspiring watch, however, is the empathetic view it holds not for Salinger, but for the craft of writing.
Rebel is authentic enough in portraying the personal minutiae of Salinger’s life that made him into a hardworking writer.
But Strong’s refusal to reflect more deliberately on his protagonist’s flaws — like how that same stubbornness personally affected other people in Salinger’s life — make Rebel a feel-good hagiography, though one that brims with some valuable lessons.