Rebel in the Rye - Review

---

---

Read Mind on Movies review of REBEL IN THE RYE, in theaters September 15th. Kevin Spacey is the only good thing is this movie, and that's not saying much.

---

R: September 15th, 2017 | R: 109 minutes | R: PG-13

---

If you ever attended high school, you likely read -- or were at least assigned to read -- The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger's most famous work. Salinger gained a massive following after publishing Catcher when readers found that he'd captured them within the Holden Caulfield character.

The fandom eventually became so extreme that Salinger bought a house in the woods and built a fence around it; something I've wanted to do for ages.

Rebel in the Rye covers Salinger's rich legacy and the adversity he faced along the way. Jerome David Salinger (Nicholas Hoult), the disappointment of his father's (Victor Garber) eye, floundered a long time -- dropping out of NYU and Ursinus -- before deciding to study at Columbia. Against his father's wishes, his mother, Marie (Hope Davis) gave the final word and Jerry got his wish, going to school to be a writer.

In that writing class, he would meet one of the greatest influences of his life, Professor Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey) who also happened to be an editor at Story magazine. Butting heads at first, the two become fast friends when Burnett recognized the true talent beneath Salinger's cocky exterior.

Turning in story after story to both Burnett and different publications -- specifically the New Yorker -- Jerry continued to face rejection. His agent, the agent he would have until he retired, Dorothy (Sarah Paulson) continuously reminded him that being published was everything.

Continue Reading...

Eventually, Whit surprises Jerry with a published work in Story. With that, he was off -- writing day and night to publish something new. Meanwhile, his "published" status scored him a dance with Oona O'neill (Zoey Deutch) -- daughter of Playwright Eugene O'Neill -- who he then began dating.

Soon after, Jerry received word he would be drafted. While overseas, he learned -- as the rest of the world did -- that Oona had married Charlie Chaplin. Publicly dumped, he spent the next several years of his life in the war, writing to stave off death. I'd love to give you more details about this, but the movie spent more time on Oona than Salinger's time in the war including handing out food at concentration camps and the Beaches of Normandy.

Returning from war, J.D. suffered from PTSD that -- as with so many others -- was treated as a passing phase. His writing suffered for it, but he eventually recovered and was able to pen one of the most famous novels of all time.

J.D. Salinger lived a wildly interesting life and it's a shame that this movie didn't encapsulate that. To be vividly honest, it felt like they asked some disaffected high school student to write a five-page essay on J. D. Salinger and then said, "Great, this'll be the screenplay for the movie as well."

His break up with Oona was a bigger focus than his time in the war, Catcher, or his marriage later.

In short, J. D. Salinger lived a life that was full of fascinating events that are worth talking about, just by a different director/writer. The one saving grace of Rebel in the Rye is its lovely score composed be the multi-faceted Bear McCreary who's designed such gems as the 10 Cloverfield Lane soundtrack and the opening music of The Walking Dead.

Not even Kevin Spacey could save this film. Mercifully, he did Baby Driver as well and that was a GREAT film. Nicholas Hoult's on-screen presence here was lacking at best but I don't think it was his fault.

Save your $12 or go see something else.

Rating: 2 out of 5

---

Katie (Contributor) is a cinephile and Chicago native who has been reviewing film for nearly a decade. Her heroes include Roger Ebert and Jay Sherman -- it stinks! Click Here to check out Katie's Articles.

How do you portrait one of the most mysterious and private lives post-success as a generic, cookie cutter biopic? REBEL IN THE RYE's biggest flaw is not being dull as dirt, it is failing to properly capture J. D. Salinger's (a terribly miscast Nicholas Hoult) creative process in writing his most successful work, The Catcher in the Rye. Director/Writer Danny Strong's script is so ineptly shallow that it makes Holden Caulfield look like an afterthought, a bearing in Salinger's mind in the middle of a tonally inconsistent mess.

That is not to say the film did not have its highs, like Kevin Spacey's ever-brilliant performance, and rising star Zoey Deutch's distinctive rendition of Oona O’Neill. Among the rest of the cast, Sarah Paulson and Hope Davis feel criminally underused. The score and production design are also silver linings, making the film engaging when the pictures and words seen and said on-screen are not.

Continue Reading...

Unfortunately for fans of Salinger, this signifies a wasted opportunity to get an introspective look at one of the most enigmatic authors of the last century. Instead, Strong's efforts result in a formulaic, calculatedly melodramatic story that never quite zeroes in on why the protagonist's unorthodox and overconfident writing style made him a literary legend.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5

---

Gerardo (Contributor) is a film student living in Philadelphia. He usually prefers independent and classic films, but he will watch anything in theaters. Click Here to check out Gerardo's Articles.