James Ponsoldt
The end of the tour - Un viaggio con David Foster Wallace

When the film "The End of the Tour - Un viaggio con David Foster Wallace" had its fleeting release in Italian theaters (back in 2016), it didn’t receive much attention from either audience or critics. Perhaps the subject seemed a bit relegated to the particular domain of modern fiction. Yet the protagonist, David Foster Wallace, was an author rightfully included among the greats of not only American literature, but I would say international and contemporary literature as well. A great writer, therefore, but also a man with a difficult character, so introverted, shy, and insecure. And it is precisely this film, directed by James Ponsoldt, that presents him to us at a particular point in his earthly journey, when his opus magnum "Infinite Jest" is published in 1995 and meets with great interest from both American public and critics. Perhaps a success that even David could not have imagined, as if he were a rock star.

And here enters the other character, the journalist David Lipski, who, working for the renowned magazine "Rolling Stone," rightly thinks there just might be grounds for a juicy interview to conduct, and later publish in the aforementioned magazine. Having received approval from the editors to proceed, Lipski contacts Wallace, who agrees to be interviewed during the final week of the book tour across American bookstores and universities.

All simple in theory, but this period spent in the vast expanses of the US, sometimes traveling by car, sometimes by plane, becomes the occasion to unfold a not always idyllic relationship between the two characters. And the reasons why not everything goes smoothly between journalist and writer can be summed up in a simple explanation: communication between two people (in this case the interviewee and the interviewer) doesn’t always flow without hiccups. If the journalist, for professional duty, tries to uncover a story (or a scoop), even by asking uncomfortable questions (rightly shedding light on certain unmentionable secrets of power), the person being interviewed may be reticent. And if so, it can sometimes happen that the interviewee prefers to remain vague and evasive, not to hide any wrongdoing, but simply because shyness prevents him from being too explicit, taking refuge behind a certain laconic attitude (without, however, being complicit in any wrongdoing).

Perhaps Lipski, at the time of that interview, thought he might discover some amazing secrets or unbelievable behind-the-scenes details about Wallace. And surely, after reading a monumental novel like "Infinite Jest," one might well imagine that all the frenetic, chaotic humanity crowding its pages reflects, in some way, the author’s lifestyle. But Wallace, although shy, was not so eccentric—or at least not any more than average. If anything, even then, he probably sensed his tendency toward depressive crises (not for nothing did he end his life in 2008) and was self-aware enough to find, in writing, a good antidote—just a way to overcome that sense of loneliness that tormented him. And when nothing else helped, he was even willing to attend modern dance classes in a church hall near his home. He was, essentially, a person who preferred not to reveal the existence of certain inner demons.

So, nothing more incredible than one might expect, and even journalist Lipski, kindly hosted in Wallace’s simple home, comes to realize this (even if he goes so far as to snoop through the novelist’s bathroom cabinet, under the illusion of discovering who knows what). In the end, despite recording hours of conversations with Wallace, the interview was never published; but, twelve years later, after learning of Wallace’s suicide, Lipski would draw inspiration to write a book about those strange days of the tour, titled "Although of course you end up becoming yourself," which is what inspired Ponsoldt’s film.

Beyond the excellent performances of Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg (playing David Foster Wallace and David Lipski, respectively), the film sheds light on a man like Foster Wallace, the typical good-hearted American guy with great literary style. According to literary critics, his work provides an illuminating depiction of the current features of contemporary society, increasingly lost in chasing the numerous sources of distraction offered by the web. All in order to wallow in entertainment for its own sake, just to avoid thinking.

And perhaps it’s odd that, after seeing "The End of the Tour - Un viaggio con David Foster Wallace," I’ll find the motivation to begin reading his masterpiece "Infinite Jest," a little over 1200 pages long. Sometimes it really can happen that it’s cinema that reconciles me with reading a complex book.