I’ve heard several reviews saying that The End of the Tour, which has 91% on Rotten Tomatoes, was a film that should have been seen by more people. It’s now free with Amazon Prime to watch on Amazon Instant and I gladly sat late to watch this film.
The End of the Tour follows David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) as he goes to interview David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) for Rolling Stone. Set in 1996 just after the publication and critical acclaim of Wallace’s novel, “Infinite Jest.”
I’ll start this with putting out that I’m a Jason Segel fan. I’ve heard many people say they are not fans, but I believe this movie and his performance can win them over. I am sad to admit that I’ve not read any David Foster Wallace nor did I know anything about him prior to this film. However, the film has intrigued me greatly on his writing and his character.
Eisenberg feels more like Eisenberg than Segel seemed Segel, but his performance is still solid. As the two characters seem to be playing a dangerous mental chess match putting up pawns of information to be taken by the bishop of friendship. Only to later show they had a hidden strategy to earn the checkmate. The back in forth and the characters as Wallace is suspicious of Lipsky’s intentions, and Lipsky is jealous of what Wallace has achieved creates an interesting dynamic in their relationship.
Many of the lines in the film supposedly come from the interview tapes that Lipsky kept. While I’m a skeptic by nature, it still makes some of the amazing dialogue all the more impressive to think it came off the top of Wallace’s head. A quote I really connected with was, “I think being shy basically means being self-absorbed to the extent that it makes it difficult to be around other people.” In many ways this quote reflects my personality and it was a keen insight into human behavior.
The movie is heavy on conversation, which is something I’ve found to be a movie element that I enjoy. The conversations move though and the film doesn’t drag because the wit and communication between the characters has its own sense of action.
I would definitely say that The End of the Tour is a Solid Movie that is definitely worth renting or watching with Prime. I’m likely to buy this movie as I think it’s a really interesting story that is very well acted.
Berkreviews.com 