‘The End of the Tour’ is half of a great movie

After a steady diet of summer movie blockbusters like “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Mad Max: Fury Road,” “Jurassic World,” and “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation,” it’s refreshing to see a movie daring enough to be only about two guys just talking, mostly in a car, but also in diners and nondescript rooms.

In “The End of the Tour,” a Rolling Stone journalist interviews the most heralded young writer of his generation while he’s on a book tour in the Midwest. Over the course of a few days, the two men talk about many things, big and small. At times it’s hard to know who’s interviewing whom.

“What’s this story about in your mind?” asks Jason Segel’s character, author David Foster Wallace.

“Just what it’s like to be the most talked-about writer int the country, that sort of thing,” responds Jesse Eisenberg’s character, Rolling Stone journalist David Lipsky.

“You’re like a nervous guy, huh?” Wallace inquires.

“No, no, no, no, I’m OK. How are you?” Lipsky somewhat nervously responds.

“I’m terrified,” Wallace says.

These are real guys. It’s 1996. The interviewer is David Lipsky and the writer is David Foster Wallace, who’s out promoting his first novel, the extravagantly praised “Infinite Jest.” It’s a massive, erudite tome on American pop culture and our consumer society that also happens to be hugely entertaining.

Wallace is very conflicted about his success.

The reputation for brilliance cuts both ways. Wallace tells Lipsky the more people who think you’re really great, the bigger the fear of being a fraud is. If anything, his brilliance increases his self-consciousness and his insecurity.

Segel, best known for broad comedic roles in Judd Apatow-like movies, is brilliant as the hyper-sensitive David Foster Wallace. Having been lucky enough to have had a brief conversation with Wallace myself at the Elliot Bay Bookstore in 1996, I can vouch for the seeming accuracy of Segel’s portrayal. He nails that odd combination of overweening ego and hyper-sensitivity.

For example, I remember kidding Wallace about his trepidation over being interviewed by NPR’s Terri Gross. After all, she was “only” a radio personality and he was the next great American author. He somewhat sheepishly explained to me that his dad was such a huge fan of Terri Gross’ that he was afraid of not measuring up.

Eisenberg’s character is less successful as David Lipsky. Very few of us know anything about the Rolling Stone writer, so it may be that Eisenberg’s version of him is spot-on. Unfortunately, he’s not nearly as compelling of a character, at least in Eisenberg’s hands, and yet he gets equal time. Besides, his portrayal seems to consist of all of the actor’s worst acting tics &#8212 nervous twitching, a cracked voice, a rushed delivery.

Imagine Nick Carroway getting equal billing with the “Great Gatsby.” It wouldn’t work. It should be enough that Carroway gets to shape Jay Gatsby’s story. We don’t need him to also be front and center in the story.

I realize the film’s director and screenwriter want the focus to be on the tricky relationship between the two writers, the one already arrived, the other desperately wanting to be there with him. But when Lipsky characterizes those four days as the best conversation he ever had, I’m not convinced. For me, Eisenberg/Lipsky didn’t hold up their end of that conversation.

“The End of the Tour” is half of a great movie.