Year: 2015
Directed by: James Ponsoldt
Written by: Donald Margulies (screenplay) & David Lipsky (book)
The story of the five-day interview of acclaimed author David Foster Wallace by a Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky.
I used to like this movie, where the main character loves this one specific book, and so does another character. The author is praised, but his name is never said, neither is the name of the book. But based on everything said in said movie, that book was apparently Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace. And all my knowledge of David Foster Wallace came from that movie, until I saw another one: The End Of The Tour. It's not my choice not to know more. I want to read Infinite Jest, but it's not in the local library, and also my dyslexia would make reading that 1,000 page book hellish.
There was one thing I was mostly worried about this film. Is there enough content for a movie? I know it works as a book, but when the whole thing mostly runs on dialogue between too characters, is there a movie? A dialogue itself isn't the problem, it's the nature of that dialogue that was concerning. An interview isn't necessarily mutual interaction. But in the case of The End Of The Tour it was surprisingly mutual. David Foster Wallace, or at least this version of him, asks the same kind of questions from the reporter. He gives his answer, and asks: "You?" That's a relief, it's not just a question and an answer, but there's a proper dialogue going on, even if we get to know more about David Foster Wallace than the reporter. But still, even if the dialogue works, there's still so many things that could go wrong with a film like this. It is biographical, but a film usually needs some sort of a conflict, disagreement, tension, something like that. Luckily The End Of The Tour has some structure to the story.
This movie gives an interesting image of David Foster Wallace, which is the main reason for the tension. If anyone is interviewed they might try to have a certain role, and David Foster Wallace might've had something like that going on as well, but what we see is the nature of introversion. There isn't some major conflict between Wallace and Lipsky, even if they have a disagreement, but we see how an introvert reacts to people. Introverts need some time for themselves. Also David Foster Wallace describing his life as a writer and as someone suffering from depression was excellent. It wasn't glamorized, quite the opposite. While Lipsky might've been trying to find some poetic reason for the depression, it was mostly said how he just had depression, that's it.
And since this film is mostly dialogue, I have to write about that for a bit. The text, the dialogue in this film has several sides. Of course David Foster Wallace says several serious, deep things, but a lot of the dialogue is also very much fun. And when things aren't exactly serious or fun, the dialogue has the feeling it's trying to sketch a sort clearer, more complex portrait of David Foster Wallace, since only the material for the interview isn't going to show us what David Lipsky saw. Every piece of the dialogue serves a certain purpose, no matter what subject they are talking about.
I've loved Jason Segel since I first saw him on the screen, which was the first time I ever watched How I Met Your Mother. That show might not be the greatest, not after the finale after all, but Segel shows true talent even in that show. Segel can be funny, he can be serious, he shows emotions well. Still, he was better as David Foster Wallace than I assumed. He's believable, at least to someone who isn't familiar with the author.
Visually this movie is basic. The music is also quite bland - weirdly light at many points, but it still doesn't stand out much. But it's not like those were that important in this case, because this film is mostly about the text and the people than any other cinematic look.
The End Of The Tour is an interesting piece of cinema. It's not something you can watch just for one, there's no any kind of action. Even if there is tension it's nor entirely cinematic. There seems to be only one reason to watch The End Of The Tour, and that's to get to know at least the idea of David Foster Wallace, even though it can't be certain how real the character in the film is. The End Of The Tour is an astonishing film, and if you didn't know much about David Foster Wallace, you want to learn more. Which means the film has reached its purpose. Is it worth watching twice? Maybe, but not too soon, because otherwise you just learn the dialogue by heart, and you're not able to actually hear it again.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
8 / 10
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