It’s early, but let’s prep Jason Segel’s Oscar campaign just to be safe. James Ponsoldt’s “The End of the Tour,” which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, is the start of something beautiful for Segel, who sheds his Apatowian routine to fill the iconic shoes of David Foster Wallace. Segel eases into a drawl that matches the author’s hesitant lips, but this is no mere imitation: He channels every complicated facet of the Wallace’s personality, introducing a sympathetic loner whose softness is often belied by a hardened confusion about the world he inhabits.
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The beauty of “The End of the Tour” comes in the ultimate compassion that flows between the two men. This is a rare movie that actually seems to capture more of its subject than the written word has, and that is chiefly thanks to Segel’s performance. You won’t want for “Dracula’s Lament” one bit with this new iteration of his career.
