The End of the Tour (*****)

The mysteries surrounding great works of art are as endless as they are fascinating, and perhaps more so is the interest in the actual creator. To look at a great painting or listen to a beautiful song is inspiring and no less frustrating: inspiring that someone could make something so perfect in the first place, and frustrating realizing that it is beyond the abilities of the everyday man.

So goes the loose plotline of "The End of the Tour," a remarkably perfect film about an author and a journalist, both seeking to understand the world they live in and perhaps the means to live a fulfilling life. It's 1996, and David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) has just published his 1,000-page opus titled 'Infinite Jest,' a book that would later be listed as one of the 100 greatest english-language novels in the last 100 years. We meet David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg), an aspiring writer and journalist for Rolling Stone magazine. Upon hearing the hype for the book, he picks it up and immediately sees that is is something greater than mere words on a page. David convinces his editor to allow him to write an article on Wallace, even though we learn that the magazine has never written a piece about an author before. Lipsky sets off for central Illinois to follow Wallace on the final days of his book tour and attempt to summarize the heart and soul of a man bound for greatness.

The film that follows is as charming and fascinating as anything I could imagine. Over the course of the film, we listen in on the two men discuss things from food to life to aspirations. Though I haven't seen it (shame on me), I would imagine that this film dances in the footsteps of a movie like "My Dinner With Andre," another story that allows plot to take a backseat to discussion. Under lesser actors, the film could have floundered, but these two men keep our attention from start to finish.

What drives Lipsky throughout the movie is his attempt to humanize a man that by all accounts is a literary genius, and yet Wallace is nothing more than an average middle-class American with a small home in the suburbs and a couple of dogs. He jokes about meeting women, likes to eat junk food, and is humbled by the praise his book is receiving. Lipsky interprets it to be a cover for a more cocky personality, but what he realizes is that Wallace is in fact a man of principle, and that a well-rounded individual does not have to be corrupted by success in every scenario.

The casting is inspired, and it is with Jason Segel that the movie has it's crowning achievement. Yes, he wears the bandana and glasses and captures Wallace's look, but his overall demeanor is wrought with such delicacy that the role is one for the ages. His portrayal of Wallace is one of the year's great performances: subtle, calculated, and yet never acted. It would be a shame for Oscars to overlook such a monumental achievement even from such a small film early in the awards season.

The script (based on a book published by Lipsky after Wallace's suicide in 2008 (can you believe Rolling Stone passed on the original article?)) has a lyrical flow and its success is that our minds never realize once that all the conversations we are watching are anything but genuine. It's a beautiful piece of writing, and coupled with a clear love for the memory of David Foster Wallace, this is a movie not to be missed.

(Awards potential: Best Actor (Segel, Eisenberg), Best Adapted Screenplay)