"The End of the Tour" is more intellectual than emotionally satisfying, but it is, nonetheless, an intriguing movie about Rolling Stone reporter David Lipsky's interview with David Foster Wallace. Lipsky spent a few days with Wallace in 1996 as Wallace wound up his book tour for Infinite Jest, his massive novel that made him a rock star among novelists. He hung out at Wallace's home in Bloomington, Ill., and traveled with him to Minneapolis for a reading. (Lipsky never published the story in the magazine, but later transcribed the interviews in his book Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself after Wallace committed suicide in 2008.)
Of the duo, our support probably align more with Wallace than Lipsky, who comes across as an irritating journalist who goes so far as to open the author's medicine cabinet to get a read on his subject. Eisenberg is good at playing disagreeable, but the role doesn't challenge him to do more. Segel, on the other hand, digs deep into Wallace, who is carefree one moment and in the next, deeply worried about how he's going to across in the article. A little doughy and wearing Wallace's signature head scarf, Segel gives one of the best performances of the year. What we ultimately discover in "The End of the Tour" is that the life you envy might not be what you really need or want. Pretty heavy for a summer movie.
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