While most authors would revel in the fame that comes along with creating one of the most well-known Amer ican novels of all-time, The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salin ger defied all expectations by retreating to Cornish, N.H., to live in relative obscurity for the remainder of his life. Now, however, Shane Saler no’s latest film Salinger has pulled the author back into the public eye.

Salinger’s 1951 novel swiftly morphed from a mere book into the collective represen tation of an entire genera tion’s frustrations. However, as the years passed, Salinger faded into relative obscurity. That’s one of the reasons why Salerno’s Salinger rubs me the wrong way — it feels a bit un fair to release a tell-all tale of one of the most famously re clusive men in recent history

The film delves deep into Salinger’s psyche, and it at tempts to explain the rea soning behind Salinger’s seclusion and general career choices. It fills you in about every bit of knowledge you could ever wish to have about Salinger. Salerno’s film draws from estranged friends, col leagues, lovers and family members to provide a com prehensive snapshot of Salin ger’s complex life.

Salinger was pushed into the Army by his father, which, ironically enough, gave his writing career the boost it needed. While Salinger was in the bunkers he was said to be constantly working on the manuscript for Catcher, and the film provides some of the only stills of Salinger working on his classic novel.

However, one of the de tracting points from Salin ger is how strongly it tries to push the argument that all of this information is exclu sive. The film’s editing and soundtrack certainly don’t lend to its storytelling, and at crucial points of Salinger’s story the film would cut away to a dramatic and poorly filmed re-enactments. Rather than relying on the immer sive storytelling of Salinger’s acquaintances, the filmmak er uses a poorly put together re-enactment that looks bet ter suited for an A&E special than a feature film.

However, spotty visual ef fects and an overly dramatic score couldn’t pull me away from still enjoying this film. It’s still terribly entertaining to learn about Salinger’s de mons that drove him to what some may consider insanity.

Salerno’s film accounts that Holden Caulfield, Salinger’s iconic narrator from Catcher, was primarily based upon his own self. Thus when he would find rejection, criti cism or controversy with the character he could barely contain his anger. He wept when a potential publisher thought Caulfield was crazy and was driven into deeper seclusion when three mur ders, including that of John Lennon, were attributed to the killer’s fixation with Caulfield and Catcher.

The film seems to hint at Salinger enjoying this me dia attention, claiming that he would beckon reporters to do brief stories about his seclusion, but that seems to be a bit of a stretch given the way Salinger’s friends said he hated the unwanted at tention. Surely Salerno and his crew were aware that prying so deeply into a dead man’s life was something that should be touched on lightly, which makes the film all the more surreal. Is it great to finally understand the mo tives behind this famously reclusive author. But it all feels unnecessary.

It’s great to have learned the inner-workings of one of our country’s finest voices, but it comes at a cost. The film re veals that Salinger planned to posthumously release the novels he was wrote through out his 40 years of seclusion, which feels a bit like an at tempt to end the movie on a high-note for those salivating Salinger fans. But ultimately the film still leaves a sour taste, mostly because it’s a prying piece of work about a man who is notorious for his desire to be left to his own devices.