Quietly enthralling experience
Cinema THE END OF THE TOUR (8/10) CINEMA NOUVEAU ATUMHLANGA
THIS is a compelling movie, based on fact, about a famous American novelist and a writer from Rolling Stone magazine, who are thrown together for a few days at the end of a book tour.
David Foster Wallace, essayist and novelist, is regarded as one of America’s finest writers, although his body of work was relatively slight before he committed suicide at the age of 46.
His epic novel, Infinite Jest, was highly praised, and he also wrote books of essays.
The journalist, David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg), nagged his reluctant editor to accompany Wallace on the book tour, to write a profile of him.
As it turned out, the profile never got written, but years later, after Wallace’s death in 2008, Lipsky wrote an account of their trip called Although, Of Course, You End Up Becoming Yourself.
This movie, superbly directed by James Ponsoldt and scripted by playwright Donald Margulies, is based on Lipsky’s book.
There has been some controversy over the film, with Wallace’s family and some of his friends objecting to certain elements of it. But to an outsider, these concerns are hard to appreciate.
The movie is not trying to pry into Wallace’s personal life, but rather detail the pressures and contradictions that celebrity imposes on a brilliant writer and a fragile human being, who at once needs publicity (without being compromised by it), but really craves solitude so that he can get his writing done.
For much of the film, one is aware, thanks to Segel’s sharp, sensitive performance, that Wallace is forced to play the role of the famous writer surrounded by sycophants, fans and those jealous of his abilities.
It’s a role he hates, but feels forced to undertake. Whenever this feeling emerges too obviously, Lipsky reminds him: “You agreed to the interview.”
Wallace, then, is torn between being confessional and strategically evasive during the journey from his home in Illinois to Minneapolis, the last stop on his book tour.
By contrast, Lipsky, although superficially pleasant, is really a hard-bitten journalist armed with his ever-present tape recorder, looking to get the dirt on his subject’s life. The journalist is also a writer, but we learn that his own novel was greeted by polite indifference. He’s barely able to suppress his jealousy over Wallace’s fame and is determined to nail down rumours of Wallace’s heroin addiction and depressive episodes.
Despite pretending to be Wallace’s pal, Lipsky isn’t above sneaking into his subject’s bathroom to feverishly write down the names of pills in his cabinet, or race through his house speaking into his dictaphone as he notes all the intimate details of the décor.
Those who don’t know Wallace’s work (as I don’t) shouldn’t feel deterred from seeing this movie. The quality of the talk, the performances of the two principal actors and Ponsoldt’s penetrating direction ensure that it’s a quietly enthralling experience.