I can’t say if Jason Segel’s thoughtful and persuasive performance in “The End of the Tour,” as David Foster Wallace the troubled writer of “Infinite Jest,” is accurate.
But I can vouch for one authentic thing: the utilitarian, dependable silver grey Sony cassette tape recorder used by the reporter, played Jesse Eisenberg, to interview Wallace and into which the reporter whispers his observations.
Turns out the film about Wallace by James Ponsoldt (“The Spectacular Now,” “Smashed”) is equally about the personal and professional baggage of the reporter. And it is a demonstration of how attempts to bond with a source can be acts of both seduction and betrayal.
Eisenberg plays real life Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky interviewing Wallace over five days during a 1996 book tour.
The film is based on a book Lipsky wrote about the tour in 2010, two years after Wallace’s suicide, and that has ironically helped Lipsky achieve a level of success he envied in Wallace. It begins with Lipsky hearing of Wallace’s death, pulling out his tapes and reminiscing.
We learn the extremely private Wallace lives in a snowbound small Illinois town with two dogs, teaches at a local college and wears his newfound literary success like a headband made of thorns.
His stubborn resistance to Lipsky’s persistent probing as they travel by car and plane to Minneapolis (Joan Cusack plays the chirpy local book tour rep), becomes a metaphysical back and forth along the lines of what made the 1,200 page book unreadable to many.
The conversation-driven result is the first season of “True Detective” meets “My Dinner With Andre.” And Segel, said to have based his dialog and performance on Lipsky’s tapes, does most of the talking.
He moves in slow motion compared to the twitchy Lipsky and his open wound compassion is in contrast to the competitive and ambitious reporters’ cynicism. They bond as people over cigarettes, junk food, “Die Hard” and television, to which Wallace is literally addicted and cannot watch.
But the formal journalist and subject relationship is never far beneath the surface. They are not friends.
As Wallace Segel displays an aggressive tentativeness when responding to Lipsky’s questions knowing the reporter will filter their encounter through his own biases and create a lingering impression of the writer for others.
That “The End of the Tour” is about two people is what makes it feel real; each character helps the other come to life. And like Lipsky’s authentic tape recorder Ponsoldt, piles on the ordinary detritus of daily life to which Wallace clung to like a life-preserver until he no longer could hold on
***1/2 Three and a Half Stars
With Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg, Mamie Gummer, Anna Chlumsky, Joan Cusack, Ron Livingston. Written by Donald Marguilies. Directed by James Ponsoldt. Rated R: language, sexual references. Approximate running time: 106 minutes.
Tags: David Foster Wallace, End of the Tour, Jason Segel, Jesse Eisenberg Posted by