davo Review of L'attrape-Salinger

L'attrape-Salinger (2007 TV Movie)

Trying to be funny? The Salinger Trap

[4/10 · 21 July 2019]

I don't believe this movie is exactly what it pretends to be. Documentary? It has the feel of a mockumentary, and the scenes of the locals in Cornish in particular seem staged. I had to ask myself, is this a joke? Some of what is said seems to be facetious. If so, its humor is quite dry. "Catching" Salinger? That's just a play on the title of his most famous book. Catching Salinger is name on the title screen of the DVD we watched, which also had the credits in English, as well as voice-over English narration. It is also the name of a film released in 2009 by 3 guys from Ohio who went looking for Salinger. (Couldn't bring myself to watch very much of that after being disappointed by this one, but it is available on YouTube.) The film ends with the protagonist supposedly walking up Salinger's driveway, but we never see the great writer live, though evidently Salinger was still alive at the time this film was made. My disappointment is probably compounded by re-reading Salinger as a senior citizen after having read him as a young man decades ago.