J.D. Salinger’s coming of age tale The Catcher in the Rye has long appealed to a certain swath of adolescents who see themselves in Holden Caulfield. In James Sadwith’s new film Coming Through the Rye, one such adolescent gets a shot at meeting his idol, as he travels in search of the reclusive author to get the rights to the novel.
Coming Through the Rye centers on Jamie Schwartz (Alex Wolff), a sixteen year old outcast in a boarding school who deeply identifies with the protagonist of Salinger’s novel. He wants to adapt the story into a play for his school, but is told he needs to get the rights from Salinger (Chris Cooper). So he leaves on a cross-country journey to find the notoriously reclusive writer and obtain his approval for the play – which, as this latest trailer shows us, Salinger is reluctant to give.
This is one of those trailers that seems to show most of the major events of the film in the space of about two minutes. The autumnal palette, the indie guitar music, the floppy-haired teenage outcast…I feel like I’ve seen all this before. And while I always welcome Chris Cooper on my screen, I can’t say that the idea of a privileged boy going off to find his idol – and being disappointed – is much reason for me to count myself in for it; even less so when we realize that this is a personal story for the writer/director, who based it on his own experience with Salinger.
Coming Through the Rye made its debut at the Austin Film Festival last year and has since been doing the rounds, as the trailer’s mentions of numerous festival awards will testify. So hopefully this one will be worth checking out, despite my reservations about it.
Coming Through the Rye will hit U.S. theaters on October 14.