Catching Salinger

J.D. Salinger (1919-2010), author of the classic Catcher in the Rye, published nothing after 1965, and fled New York for rural New Hampshire even prior to that, quickly becoming the literary world's most famous recluse, granting no interviews and almost never appearing in public. Many attempts were made to pierce his protective shield—often resulting in litigation—but few were as pointlessly irritating as the efforts of French writer and television personality Frédéric Beigbeder, chronicled in this hour-shy documentary. Catching Salinger is essentially an exercise in self-promotion in which Beigbeder, professing his love of Salinger's work, travels to America with the aim of tracking down the author and offering him his personal thanks. Most of the film consists of footage of Beigbeder visiting locales connected to Salinger's past and accosting the people he happens to meet there, or having chatty interviews with other devotees of the writer (the best-known probably being novelist Jay McInerney). Presumably, viewers are meant to find the volatile, rumpled Beigbeder charming, but instead he comes across as a pushy, egocentric buffoon, and the comments made by him and others never move beyond the obvious. In the end, of course, the title turns out to be a tease, except perhaps in some grandiosely figurative sense, as Beigbeder is left rambling about rural New Hampshire searching for Salinger's house and wondering what he will do if he finds it. Even with the renewed interest in Salinger after his death (a major documentary entitled simply Salinger is slated for release this year), this vanity project is not recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)