This documentary by screenwriter Shane Salerno (Armageddon and Savages) garnered mixed reviews when it premiered this fall. The subject, reclusive American author J.D. Salinger (1919-2010), is certainly interesting enough. But even though the film clocks in at a full two hours, the challenge remains: how do you sum up a person’s life in a single film, no matter how long it happens to be.
Reviews suggest that Salerno went for a scattershot approach, with the result that the film tends to lack focus. One thing it is chock-full of, though, is interviews with well-known figures who offer their thoughts on Salinger and the impact of his best known work — the 1951 novel The Catcher In the Rye.
Salinger is screening at the RPL Theatre tonight and Saturday at 7 p.m., and Friday and Sunday at 9 p.m. Here’s the trailer:
