SLIFF 2016 Review – COMING THROUGH THE RYE

COMING THROUGH THE RYE screens Sunday, Nov. 6 at 12:30pm at The Tivoli Theater as part of this year’s St. Louis International Film Festival. Ticket information can be found HERE.

Inspired by events from the filmmaker’s own life, COMING THROUGH THE RYE is the poignant and funny story of 16-year-old Jamie Schwartz (Alex Wolff), who in 1969 has landed at an all-boys boarding school for all the wrong reasons. Ostracized by nearly everyone, he clings to the unshakable belief that he will someday play Holden Caulfield — the main character in “The Catcher in the Rye — on Broadway and in the movies. Jamie adapts the novel into a play to put on at school, but after a series of increasingly hostile incidents with students, he runs away with a quirky townie, DeeDee (Stefania Owen), to find the book’s author, J.D. Salinger (Chris Cooper). On their odyssey to find the reclusive writer, Jamie slowly opens up to DeeDee and discovers secrets about himself that will change his life forever.

COMING THROUGH THE RYE review by Stephen Tronicek

There’s a hilarious irony to COMING THROUGH THE RYE as the main character, Jamie Schwartz, comes to the realization that he himself must let go of being able to play Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his adaptation of J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye, while also slowly embodying Caulfield. He doesn’t at first,but only because he lacks the experience. This is what makes James Steven Sadwith’s Coming Through the Rye such a twee, yet amusing film. Jamie’s character becomes Holden Caulfield.

It takes twists and experience to get there though and as these films go, such twists and experiences feel more stunted and therefore more natural. Coming Through the Rye plays in the vein of John Green’s Fault in Our Stars, yet doesn’t hold that film’s perfected tweeness. It holds more honesty. and certainly more of an idea of the little ironies that make life hilarious and entertaining.

Each new situation has Jamie gaining some new similarity to Holden, starting off as a naive young boy and grows into a more intelligent, layered character. This is on one hand due to Alex Wolff’s performance as Jamie (though he does seem a little too modern for the 60’s setting), but the also the character of Holden Caulfield. Holden himself encounters an older woman who seems almost like one of his age, much like Jamie does. Holden himself comes close to a sexual encounter only to lose it at the last second and so does Jamie. As he settles to become someone else than Caulfield, he shares the same experiences.

The naivete of the Jamie also parallels the reading of Catcher in the Rye. It is said that many teens reading the book perceive the book as an ideal, and Caulfield as an idol, but as time goes on they realize that Caulfield is revealed to be more of a troubled soul, dealing with death. Jamie’s own life parallels much of that, but his ignorance of Caulfield connects with his own unknowingness. It strengthens the narrative allowing the saccharine elements to better blend.

Nat Wolff, Chris Cooper, and Stefania Owen are all effective, but they never crack the sense that they’re modern actors. The film feels instantly relatable in the context of even the modern day, which helps but also robs authenticity from the film.

The best thing COMING THROUGH THE RYE has going for it is a cast that is passionate and the way it’s overly sweet nature is underscored by the genuinely funny ignorance of its protagonist This is a story of personal growth that is deceptively about the denial of growing into what you want to be and just how completely amusing that really is. Jamie doesn’t want to be Holden, but he could never avoid it.