One assumes from watching last year’s The End of the Tour (2015) that author David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) committed suicide in 2008 because he was so out of synch with ordinary social life. Donald Margulies, the gifted playwright, provides a depiction of Wallace as a shy but defensive weirdo, an often unlikable if brilliant neurotic. He is sans a wife or a girlfriend, has experienced deep depression—and, frankly, doesn’t stand a chance.
Directed by James Ponsoldt, The End of the Tour is a lesser film than Ponsoldt’s The Spectacular Now. Though interesting, it is so short on drama it has only limited potency and appeal.
