The Worst Film Ever

Am I Missing Something?

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Catcher in the Rye is one of the worst books I've ever read, but learning more about JD Salinger helped me to appreciate it as a piece of American literature. Seeing who Salinger was, & the struggles & triumphs he experienced, I have a newfound respect for the novel.

It keeps you interested & the performances are solid - Hoult paddles us along with strong strokes & Spacey is solid (once again). This isn't a classic but it is good & there's not much more to say.If I have any criticism it would be that the script was a bit too apologetic for Salinger - if it played a touch more on his darkness the story may have been more interesting.P.S. After watching this I think Hoult would make an excellent James Bond. Tall, dark... I just think he has the maturity for it now.

Fiction has become Jerry's most successful pickup line. The culturally accepted version of lying that is: Short stories with arrogant and witty protagonists. Boys with blistering thoughts and sharp words, his characters observe only to formulate their next jab. This aggressive form of storytelling wins him affection from women, and disapproval from professors. Jerry writes himself into his stories, and the characters suffer an identity crisis as a result. His voice swallows up the narrative and the plot suffocates in an ooze of style. Of course, he is blissfully unaware of this clash until Whit lectures him into the floorboards. An editor of Story magazine, Whit still teaches at Columbia to support his fruitless career in writing.Whit is the first jaded wise man that Jerry encounters on his journey to self-actualization. The veteran abandons his podium often, knowing that Jerry requires a confrontational teaching approach. Sniffing out Jerry's talent, Whit chastised the young artist with noble purpose. A will stronger than titanium, Jerry's character needs to be re- purposed into an insatiable drive. Greatness comes at a grave cost. Even watering greatness involves countless occupational hazards. The fallout of success contains a special strand of toxicity. Jerry does not become drunk on his notoriety, but rather uses it as an excuse to alienate everything that does not pertain to the magic carpet that delivered him to the clouds.Jerry's second teacher reinforces this pursuit of isolation in the name of exterminating distractions. The stench from his daydreams sends him to the floor where he becomes enchanted by his breaths. Meditation becomes weaponized within his domestic context, and his productivity only wounds his family.Whit told Jerry very early on that writing is never about publication, it is about producing without ceasing with no guarantees of recognition. This cozy proverb morphs into an ugly manifesto. A global conflict gives Jerry a muse, but the magnum opus has nothing to do with death. But then again, his masterpiece might have everything to do with death.

I was excited and optimistic to see this, to see if these relatively unknown (to me) filmmakers would approximate anything close to a realistic portrayal of the man who bore the fictional legend. Sadly, it was a big disappointment. Admittedly I know as little about Salinger as most anyone does, but from what little I have read and learned about the person and his life, the whole film just seemed ill cast and played like a very contrived, superficial depiction of the man and his work. I would question how much research the film makers actually did, or perhaps just their sensibilities at understanding an aloof, isolated, lost soul, who is depicted a bit too pretty, perfect and dapper even in the pinnacle of his youth...not the Salinger I think anyone who really related to or understood someone deeply tortured as he would characterize him. It kind of felt like Matt Damon/pretty boy of the week doing his best Toby MacQuire (he would have actually been a better casting choice, the pre-Spiderman less Hollywood Toby we knew from The Icestorm or Pleasantville Days, that is...or perhaps even a Zach Braff circa Garden State type lead, if one must cast an up-and-coming star with socially aloof predilections). But Nicholas Hoult, whoever you are (I don't really follow current celebrity trends)...you are no young Salinger.Then there's Kevin Spacey, who, looking plump and unpolished, is still one of my least favorite actors (House of whatever, shut up, yes I know)...he's the same in every movie to me. For the first few scenes in the classroom, I actually found myself questioning if it was really Spacey indeed, for the first time in my life finding him in a persona where I didn't immediately recognize, "Oh, I'm watching Kevin Spacey being Kevin Spacey, trying to act." I'm almost certain those classroom scenes were looped (ADR) with his or another actor's voice, because mid-way through the movie Kevin's distinct lispy dialog crept back in, and suddenly I was just watching Kevin Spacey be himself again. I'm not sure who the actor was who dubbed over his voices during the first act, but I did enjoy that side of Spacey, a side where for once I forget who he was. An uneven performance? To say the least.Perhaps most annoyingly, Basil Exposition kept popping up...the writers/filmmakers over-use of catchwords like "phonies" and "giving' her the time" ripped from the pages of Catcher were cute the first time, not really the second time, and by the fourth or fifth repetition I wondered if they really understood anything beyond a cursory textbook, tabloid interpretation of Salinger and his life at all.I found myself waiting for the movie to end. Like many, this is one of my favorite books of all time, and this film attempt flopped short of any hopeful expectation.Perhaps this first deeply flawed attempt will serve as an impetus for better writers/filmmakers/historians/researchers to come along, and finally do justice to the man and the masterpiece that have captivated and touched lost souls across this lonely planet for so long.I'll still be waiting in the rye.