Genius (2016)

Overrated

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

With an incredible cast of Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, Laura Linney, and Dominic West, be prepared for some wonderful acting in Genius. It's a movie about the real-life editor Max Perkins who worked with famous authors, but while a few scenes touch on his relationships with F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, the majority of the film is devoted to his work with Thomas Wolfe.While there is a lot to appreciate in this movie, namely Colin Firth's emotion and Jude Law's energy, I couldn't ignore the overall feel that John Logan's script didn't quite know what direction it wanted to take. Since the film is about a very wordy writer and the quest to cut down his manuscript before publication, perhaps Logan purposely wrote his script with that tone, so that the screenplay mirrored the plot's difficulty. If it was done on purpose, it was very clever and well done. If it wasn't, then the storyline coincidentally explores many different avenues without taking the time to fully finish or flesh out any of them.There's a particular scene that I remember most vividly: Colin and Jude and working to cut down his manuscript, and a passage is read aloud about the protagonist falling in love at first sight. He describes the woman's appearance, and it's so beautifully poetic, I was almost moved to tears. At the end of the scene, Jude agrees to cut the entire description, leaving only, "Eugene saw a woman. Her eyes were blue. So quickly did he fall for her that no one in the room even heard the sound." After hearing the original prose, I was so disappointed! The scene was supposed to illustrate the fantastic working relationship between the two, and to show what a great editor Colin is, but I would have rather seen Jude's works published in its entirety, split into many volumes. The loss of such beautiful words made me lose my appetite for the rest of the film.If you're a sucker for 1930s period pieces and love the cast, you'll probably be entertained by Genius. It's not a film I want to watch again, but I do like to appreciate good acting. Although, Jude Law's over-the-top accent made me think he was faking his identity and was somehow trying to scam Colin Firth. And Guy Pearce's depressive portrayal of F. Scott Fitzgerald isn't at all how the author's fans would like to remember him, but there's always Midnight in Paris for a more likable, upbeat interpretation.

This is a biopic of the relationship of editor Maxwell Evarts Perkins (Colin Firth) and his newly discovered genius author Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) who has self destructive tendencies that disrupts the lives of those he touches. We meet his girlfriend Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman) who has given up her family for his genius. F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce) is in his waning years, caring for Zelda (Vanessa Kirby) the topic for a different biopic tragedy.The film was well acted as one might guess from all the A listers. The problem I had was, like my life, it pretty much goes no where. We can discuss various themes such as Wolfe's search for a father, but any real theme eluded me, and the film really needed something to define its purpose more openly.Guide: No F-words, sex, or nudity.

It's a reasonable, pleasant film. There isn't a big story, an astonishing scenario or even an amazing moment in the movie. But for those who love literature it is interesting to look at such famous writers, that quite frankly I always saw as some sort of gods, not even giving them a real image, and now seeing them as human beings, failing and being petty as they write tremendously. It is interesting to think of the process of writing that created The Great Gatsby and what follows next. It make us realize that we are just commons humans no matter what great achievements we make. There are some moments in the movie that are going to get our attention and some suspense in the middle that is well explored. Jude Law, specially, and Colin Firth are actors that know what they are doing and that helps painting the picture. Overall an average movie that can become interesting if you enjoy watching an image of great writers from the pass, but not much more than that.

Despite my taste for reading, I have to admit that I had never even heard of author Thomas Wolfe (don't mix him up with Tom Wolfe, best known for having written The Right Stuff, The Bonfire of the Vanities and The Electric Kool- Acid Test). However, the film Genius taught me the fact that Wolfe was a very famous novelist during the first half of 20th century, and that his work influenced writers such as William Faulkner, Jack Kerouac and Ray Bradbury. However, Genius isn't focused on Wolfe himself, but on Maxwell Evart Perkins, the editor who recognized the talent Wolfe had below his exuberant personality and chaotic creative process. On the beginning, I found it a bit strange to dedicate a movie to the relationship between Perkins and Wolfe, instead of employing the more famous Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, who appear in the film as supporting figures, giving advice to Perkins or working as contrasts of the eccentric Wolfe; but I eventually realized that Genius transcends the biographical function in order to make us plunge into the arcane process of edition, in which a half artist and half marketer individual "dares" to modify a literary work (collaborating with the author, of course), with the objective of improving it and increasing its chances of economic success. That's a volatile combination of art and commerce which is little understood, even by those who are aficionados to reading. And that's where we find the main strength of Genius; besides of portraying the professional and domestic life of two men joined by literature, we witness the fascinating process of molding a novel between the passion of an artist and the inexorable logic of an editor. Then, we have the excellent performances. Colin Firth makes an extraordinary work as Perkins, ironically laconic despite his vast knowledge of language; it's amazing how much Firth can express with a minuscule turn of the eyes or discreet smile, while having a perfect chemistry with Jude Law, who also brings a perfect performance as the opposite extreme: a pompous and grandiloquent genius with authentic talent who is incapable of controlling his ego. Meanwhile, Laura Linney and Nicole Kidman also bring solid works as the wives of Perkins and Wolfe (respectively). In conclusion, Genius is a mature and parsimonious (but never boring) film which I recommend with enthusiasm, mainly because of the brilliant performances and its compelling analysis of the creative-commercial process which makes a manuscript become an authentic book.