Review: ‘Rebel in the Rye’ Looks at the Creation of Salinger’s Classic

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If you can’t make a movie out of “The Catcher in the Rye,” make one about the writing of it.

Years after the book came out in 1951, Hollywood was still pursuing it. “Elia Kazan and Billy Wilder keep calling,” J. D. Salinger’s literary agent Dorothy Olding (Sarah Paulson) says in “Rebel in the Rye.”

“Tell them no. And to stop calling,” he replies, briskly.

Salinger’s disinclination stemmed from disappointment over the film “My Foolish Heart” (1949), based on his story “Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut.”

Filmmakers are still eyeing “The Catcher in the Rye,” but Salinger’s estate is holding the line. Danny Strong, making his directorial feature debut, won some kind of lottery in getting the rights to a critical biography by Kenneth Slawenski. Mr. Strong seizes on the idea of Holden Caulfield as a Salinger alter ego and runs hard with it.

While “Rebel in the Rye” isn’t quite as bad as its pile-of-bricks-clunky title suggests, it’s both simple- and literal-minded, less concerned with Salinger’s consciousness or sensibility than with his ostensible ontological status as a Tortured Creative Giant. Its depiction of Salinger’s probable PTSD, the product of his service in World War II, is almost insultingly hackneyed. When he discovers meditation through an Indian guru, the score, by Bear McCreary, comes alive with tablas and sitars. And so on.

Nicholas Hoult plays Salinger with keen timing and palpable commitment, yet seems respectfully removed from the role. The only moments that set a spark pit him against Kevin Spacey as Whit Burnett, an early mentor. Their last scene together ends on a note that would, in a better movie, carry real emotional devastation.

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