Review of Rebel in the Rye (2017) by Aj C — 01 Oct 2017

Unlike Catcher in the Rye, Rebel in the Rye is no masterpiece. Despite Kevin Spacey and Nick Hoult's exceptional performances, this film isn't going anywhere. It's a dark biopic with appeal limited to the literari and the eggheads of this world.

The draw of the film for me and the other five people in the audience was to discover why JD Salinger never published anything again. Why did he become a hermit and bury himself deep in the New Hampshire woods? Why wouldn't he sell the movie rights to Catcher for millions? Why did he turn recluse? No interviews, no contact with the outside world, no phones or TVs or computers. Was he simply nuts? The film tries explore these issues but fails to tell us whether Salinger went off his rocker after seeing so much horror in WW2 or he wanted to separate himself from all distraction of the world around him to write. I have always believed that most writers like Salinger only have one good book in them, like Mario Puzzo, in "The Godfather" and James Jones in "From Here to Eternity." JD Salinger obsessed for years on "Catcher" before writing the novel After it was written, perhaps he withdrew from the world because he knew that he could never write anything better. The film is a study of a possessed soul who wanted to rid himself of humanity. It's worth seeing if you don't mind sitting in an empty theater and being left with the same unanswered questions.