Hollywood will never be allowed to make a movie adaptation of the book “Catcher in the Rye” by JD Salinger. So the next best thing is to make a biographical picture of the reclusive author. Jerome Salinger was known as Jerry to his friends, except he did not have any friends. He would love women he could never have, and ignore the wife and children he did have. He held his inner ghosts tightly, until he could unravel his thoughts out to the page. While his creative outlet makes for some great short stories and novels, it also made for a troubled life.

Salinger (Nicholas Hoult) was not a great student in college. His wealthy father balked at Jerry attending Columbia University just to study creative writing. But his mother urged him to follow his passion for story telling. In class he met Whit Burnett (Kevin Spacey). Whit was a professor and also the editor at Story Magazine. He saw the raw talent in Jerry and also encouraged him to reach for his goals, to be published. At first there was a long string of rejections. But finally Whit published one of Salinger’s short stories. Many others followed, and Salinger was becoming well known.

Jerry began dating Oona O’Neill (Zoey Deutch), who was the daughter of playwright Eugene O’Neill. He had a passion for her and a few short stories reflected their relationship. But World War II breaks out, and Jerry enlists. He is put into battle and helps storm beaches in Normandy and frees prisoners from Nazi concentration camps. But Oona did not remain true, and married another man. His best friend dies in battle. Salinger is a severely broken man. His constant writings about a character named Holden Caulfield had kept him focused on life and getting home. Now that the war was over, all thoughts of Holden bring up the horrors of the war.

Salinger spends months in a veteran’s hospital, mentally unbalanced. Back stateside with a war bride, Jerry is lost and adrift. Whit Burnett tries to get a book of Salinger’s short stories published. But he failed, and Jerry never forgives him. The wounds of the war are painful, but he finds that meditation calms him down. His ability to write about his internal stories comes back. He creates “Catcher in the Rye” and his agent Dorothy Olding (Sarah Paulson) gets it published. It becomes a nationwide sensation, but Jerry is not comfortable with all the attention.

He marries a young woman named Clair (Lucy Boynton) and they move to a very secluded place in New Hampshire. He is far away from his New York City roots, and his mind is free to create. Clair and Jerry have children, but he ignores them and his wife. Seclusion and privacy for Salinger extends even to his immediate family. Jerry continues to write and to meditate. He is still abrupt and not fond of the public. He will never allow Hollywood to destroy his novel. Not even to his death…

This movie ends up like a ‘greatest hits’ edition that quickly mentions Salinger’s various accomplishments. It does a tiny bit of digging into why his personality was so closed off to the world. He feet that many things in life were phony and just for show. That is brought out in the Holden Caulfield character. It becomes his alter-ego when he writes. This is not the first time this idea has ever emerged, but it is key to the movie.

Nicholas Hoult does a serviceable job with a character that is very difficult to present. He has some tell-tale facial tics that shows when he gives someone disdain and can return satire for counter argument. He stretches over a few decades, but always appears boyish. Kevin Spacey is a great supporting actor in his role. Whit Burnett is always ready to match wits with Salinger. But he does see the talent within and gets JD on the right path.

All in all, this is an enjoyable movie, but mostly for big fans of literary works and of Salanger. Making a movie about a person who rose to fame, only to reject the public that adored him is a tough thing to do. If you have more desire to see a popular author come to life, then this should be a movie that you might want to catch.

The story The Glass Castle is from a memoir written by 80’s gossip columnist, Jeanette Wells.  It’s about her very unconventional upbringing that gave us a fabulous subject to read about and now makes a fascinating film to watch.  Incredibly unorthodox or even oddball parents of four young children, Rex (Harrelson) and Rose Mary (Watts), decide to go off the grid with the kids.  Sick of people, especially government, telling them what to do and how to do it, they now decide what’s best.  They don’t want their brood of three girls and one boy taught in public schools because schools can’t teach them what having real life experiences can, nor can it pass on what they, Rex and Rose Mary, can themselves.  Wandering around mostly homeless is a lot to take on but the challenge is faced with eyes wide open.

Rose Mary is an artist so moving from place to place and living off the land gives her an opportunity to be in touch with the outdoors which is often the setting and the subject of her paintings.  Though she gives Rex some pushback, she does agree that it exposes the children to an environment they wouldn’t otherwise have a chance to experience.

Rex is a free spirit who comes more from a place of anger.  Intelligent like his mother, he wants the kids to touch a cactus and get poked rather than read about its piercing needles.  Unfortunately, and examples of this are plentiful in the film, he walks a fine line between devotion and callousness.  This is also something he inherited from his mother.  Leaving home, he now gets to live free but is he truly considering the family or feeding his narcissistic tendencies?  I’ll let you determine that on your own.  Director Cretton and Harrelson do an exceptional job of making that easy for you decide.

The title of the film comes from a promise Rex has made through their years of traveling from state to state and moving from one worn down dump to another.  Each time they actually live in a home, he tells the hungry and fatigued yet ambitious children that he’ll build them a castle made of glass.  He always piques their interest by showing their enthusiastic minds his designs for it and in one home they even pitch in to build its foundation… which eventually becomes a landfill.  As time goes by and the hole fills, they still do whatever they’re told and still remain loyal to show their love, trust and belief in him.  It’s excruciating to watch Rex himself crack what holds the family together.

Harrelson is intense as he brings Rex to life.  He’s well cast as a control freak that would rather drink himself unconscious than feed his children.  Watts matches wits with Harrelson as a caring mother who stays an adoring wife, going along with what he says not matter what the situation is. 
Brie Larson joins the cast halfway through and picks up where two younger actresses left off playing the younger versions of the smart, strong and fiercely opinionated and independent, Jeannette.  She does the character justice by showing the painful transition of a child following orders to a young adult realizing the very real circumstances and station in life they’re now facing.  Respect and affection for her parents are questioned and what makes The Glass Castle such an exceptional story is how it shows that you can still have both yet do what’s ultimately best for you.

This is quite an incredibly moving story with remarkable performances from the children on up and I highly recommend you see this as soon as you can.  Two notes for you… bring a tissue and stay for the pictures at the end.