FilmLit: The End of the Tour (2015)

David Foster Wallace and a reporter for Rolling Stone go on a road trip at the end of the Infinite Jest book tour during five days of interviews in 1996.

Film Review: Somehow I missed The End of the Tour when it was released, but I'm glad I found it on DVD. Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Zombieland) is the reporter and Jason Segel (best known for the TV series How I Met Your Mother) is DFW. Most of the movie centers on the two and they both turn in excellent performances. Segel captures a consistent, credible, and convincing persona that made me believe he was the author. Eisenberg gives a torn and energetic portrayal of the heavily conflicted reporter. The movie is based on actual interviews by writer David Lipsky that were intended for a Rolling Stone article that never came off. After Wallace's death, Lipsky wrote a memoir of the road trip (Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself), which formed the basis for The End of the Tour. While watching the movie it seemed that much of the dialog must have come from the interview tapes (IMDb says no, one review says yes), but a disclaimer at the end of the film stated that some events were fictitious, so I may also have to read the memoir to get a fuller picture.

Lipsky comes off poorly in The End of the Tour, which creates the conflict in the film. He's seemingly using Wallace to get the story he wants, invading his life and privacy, flirting with Wallace's former girlfriend. Although he respects him as a writer, he's jealous of Wallace's success, the success he'd like to have as a writer, and jealous of Wallace even when the author simply chats with Lipksy's girlfriend on the phone, 1,000 miles away. He's eager to paint Wallace as a fraud, when the author actually appears nakedly vulnerable and honest. Reporters are scum.

Wallace is so alone, so isolated, so encapsulated, that even while he feels exposed and invaded, he enjoys his discussions with the reporter, opens up to him, shares his home, talks about hidden parts of his life and writing. The viewer watches Wallace, insecure tho brilliant, hungry for human contact but unable to achieve it because of his painful self-consciousness combined with his desire to be (or to be seen as) a good person doing the right thing. It's uncomfortable seeing Wallace watch and envy Lipsky's casual ability to interact, flirt, make small talk. The best part of the film for me was when the author reveals what makes him a writer, why he writes the way he does, reveals the products of his constant overthinking.

If you have any interest in David Foster Wallace or Infinite Jest, The End of the Tour is well worth watching. Even without that interest, Eisenberg and Segel still create a passionate character study of an ambitious writer who's now a reporter, and a troubled, confused author who may have just created the most important novel of our time. It has a 91% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and I enjoyed this greatly, both as a film, and for its portrayal of the writer.