REVIEW - SALINGER

The bio-documentary no-one needed. Watching Salinger is akin to hearing the Cliff Notes on the life of author J. D. Salinger read aloud by a series of friends and fans, or rather shouted aloud. It's more of a tribute to the man, though an unfocused one indeed, since it reveals nothing new, yet attempts to cover everything. And no matter what grievances he caused those close to him, many of whom are interviewed here, Shane Salerno's film repeatedly returns to hero-worshipping him and his writings, revered by Salerno in the highest degree. Yet he is blind to the truth of what he has created, insisting throughout that Salinger is a film of utmost power and significance. In wildly over-editing and in setting near every single second to a crass, melodramatic soundtrack, he assembles footage of narrators both reliable and not so, and fashions his own version of the facts. It's a straightforward narrative he presents of a life that was surely more complex than this, and he re-imagines it, bespoke for the points he's so forcefully trying to make, by inexplicably mixing up the chronology. It's hard to get a foothold here, rendering Salinger a mere onslaught of storytelling hustle and bustle, which is tolerable only for a very short while. The film is over two hours long... It only achieves anything close to the kind of profundity it strives for as it turns to the luminous Joyce Maynard and her recollections of their relationship; still, Salerno is much too sensationalistic in his approach, which eventually ruins Maynard's testimony. Such is Salerno's compulsion to create the ultimate document of his beloved author's life and work, he shoots back and forth between interview and interviewee, between time periods, and the suggestion of any kind of meaningful psychological study of this undeniably distinctive character is only ever just that: a suggestion. Salerno is preoccupied instead with his own impression of Mr. Salinger, whether it be the truth, the whole truth or anything but. One imagines his hero would have abhorred this film - it is, after all, essentially, phony.