Coming Through the Rye

[StevePulaski]

Coming Through the Rye (2016)
Directed by: James Steven Sadwith

Stefania LaVie Owen and Alex Wolff.

Rating: ★★½

NOTE: This film was recommended to me by Don S. for "Steve Pulaski Sees It," a yearly event where I take recommendations from readers.

Because of the stranglehold J. D. Salinger had on the licensing rights to The Catcher in the Rye, there's reason to believe Coming Through the Rye will be the closest thing to a film adaptation of the material we get, at least for the immediate future. In some ways, you could call it the quintessential homage. Countless people who have read Salinger's famous novel — most unassuming students who were assigned to read it in American public schools — have identified with the protagonist Holden Caulfield, some in a profound way. The Catcher in the Rye has that effect on young people. For some, it's the first time they found their insecurities, anxiety, and confusion so humanized and validated.

James Steven Sadwith had his own personal odyssey in trying to track down the reclusive Salinger before his death in 2010, and that's from where a great deal of the story's inspiration draws. Jamie Schwartz (Alex Wolff, My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2) is a boarding school student so enamored with Catcher that he decides to adapt the play for his senior project. His professor is skeptical. Performing the play is one of the project's requirements. "Do you have his permission?," he asks Jamie regarding whether or not he's gotten Salinger's blessing to do so. The diligent Jamie tries to write folks rumored to be closer to Salinger, but to no avail. After a miserable group of boys vandalize his room and chide him for his passion, Jamie gets enough of it, quits school, and seeks to find Salinger himself despite not knowing exactly where to start.

Jamie bumps into DeeDee (Stefania LaVie Owen), a student at a nearby school, while working on a co-ed production. As luck would have it, DeeDee has a crush on Jamie, hears about his plan, and offers him her car and her company. Part of her wants an adventure. Another part wants the opportunity to spend time with her crush. A deceptively larger part is trying to convince Jamie to get back on the straight and narrow.

My eyes were ready to roll after Jamie and DeeDee's meet-cute suggested to leading to sexual tension that would define most of the ensuing road trip. However, Sadwith develops something sweeter, more innocent. Both virgins, there's an awkward sequence where the two teenagers shack up in a decorative motel for the night (only one bed, you know, cheaper). Jamie climbs into the sack with his jeans and belt still on, prompting an interaction and modest disrobing that will have the more sensitive crowd wincing with secondhand embarrassment. It's tenderly captured, and dare I say, blush-inducing in its preciousness.

It's no secret that Jamie is a multifaceted character insofar that he not only is emblematic of Sadwith's teenage years he's also strikingly similar to Holden Caulfield. From the red hunting cap to describing his classmates as "phonies," it's a wonder if Jamie's mannerisms were formed well before or directly inspired by The Catcher in the Rye. Early on, he breaks the fourth wall a couple times, a device that thankfully disappears after the first act, as if it had its in-the-moment trial period and tested negatively. Alex Wolff gives the character the right beats, be them stilted or bizarrely confident at the right times, loaning depth to someone who could've ultimately been a caricature. Stefania LaVie Owen's presence carries weight as well. Beyond being a buffer so we don't get too monopolized by Jamie's occasionally overwhelming musings, she brings a sweet amount of empathy. The chemistry between her and Wolff is natural because both feel like individuals.

It's not a spoiler to reveal both Jamie and DeeDee do indeed meet Salinger, played by Chris Cooper boasting a stern scowl and a prickly demeanor. I dare not spoil the ensuing interaction. In some ways, it's a come-to-Earth moment for Jamie, about his project and his place in the world, and it's one he needed desperately.

Coming Through the Rye is safe enough that it probably could've qualified as a Disney Channel Movie, but its sophistication and idyllic scenery elevate its presentation. It doesn't downplay teen angst for cheap laughs nor does it invite the easiest answers to Jamie's past, where doing the right thing in a tough situation backfired and caused him to be ostracized amongst his peers (even if the extent of which might be a bit overplayed). At the end of it all, I can't browbeat a film too hard for showing the effects literature and the right author can have on a young person. I wouldn't necessarily complain if we got more films like Sadwith's that showed the true powers of reading and writing. A generation that's quickly becoming defined by anxiety and burnout could use it.

Starring: Alex Wolff, Stefania Lavie Owen, Chris Cooper, and Zephyr Benson. Directed by: James Steven Sadwith.