Genius

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source: Genius

I think movies about writers are very difficult to do. Afterall, so much of what it is about cannot be shown on the screen, so what is left to show? Not every writer has a flamboyant life or an interesting personality. Thomas Wolfe was a bit larger than life and his books are long, long rivers of words, not for everyone's taste but certainly for people interested in writing and in literature. I did not recognize Jude Law as Wolfe until the very end. I had no idea he was in it. Ironic that Englishmen play the main characters. Why not American actors? Oh well, they did a nice job. I think Law was a tad forced here and there and the southern accent was only so so, but I am still willing to give him some kudos. I remember the days you could find Thomas Wolfe's novels on the shelf of any decent bookstore. Not so now. Maybe one or two. Maybe. It would be nice if this film turns people's attention back to him (as well as Fitzgerald and Hemingway!) I don't think it is a great movie, but it is an honorable one.

Once again, based on a book I will likely never read, Genius is about the beautiful bromance Thomas Wolfe had with his editor, Maxwell Perkins. I love Jude law in this motion picture. He shows up on the screen and you see his face. Then he starts talking like Tom Wolfe and he's like a completely different person with that accent controlling the vibe. I've seen very few films in which the actor has transformed so completely on the screen ( first thing that comes to mind is Anna Karenina). Great performance. Colin Firth was a little more silent but deadly. He mostly looked on as Jude Law exploded on the big screen, but Firth did have some pretty amusing moments as Max Perkins who gets to feel alive helping to develop the story Wolfe is working on. Nicole Kidman is still a very beautiful woman. She plays Wolfe's wife, Aline Bernstein who realizes she loosing Wolfe to the male bonding happening with Perkins. This first becomes relevant with a conversation Bernstein has with Louise Saunders who's Perkins wife, played by Laura Linney (another attractive woman). At first the run in they have seemed confusing, but you start see quickly what they are talking about as the two men become engulf in making Wolfe's novels brilliant. Guy Pearce has a small role in the movie as F. Scott Fitzgerald that's a pretty intense performance. Dominic West also does a small cameo- like performance as Ernest Hemingway I love the art direction of the film. It places you right in the period. It did not feel at all like CGI or blue screen, I could be wrong , but either Hollywood got ridiculous good at it or there are places in the UK that look like that period. Genius is a fun film thanks the great acting chops of Jude Law, who nails it. http://cinemagardens.com/

This movie is a must-see. It was amazing to see the story of a brilliant editor and how he affected and shaped the work of the writers he worked with. Before seeing that movie I was not aware of the actual work that an editor puts in a book and how much he/she supports it overall. The acting and the depiction of the characters by all actors in the movie was brilliant! Really impressed by Jude Law and Nicole Kidman. Colin Firth was as brilliant as I expected him to be! Thomas Wolfe was amazing as a character and I am really thinking of starting one of his books as I haven't read anything of his. The movie balances between the personal life of Mr. Perkins and his professional one, getting into the mix all these amazing characters. In the end, I could not help but wonder, if what Thomas Wolfe produced may have also been a side effect of his predicament, although I am almost certain that this was not the case. This is a really nice movie, a bit of a drama, so you have to be in the mood to watch it, but a damn good one!

Genius has a compelling story about the relationship of an editor and a gifted, yet troubled, writer set in the 1930s. This film boasts a strong cast, a cast recognizable enough but not featuring a batch of A-listers that are too frequently type cast. It also it a period piece, which I enjoy, that features the fashion, music, and history that makes these films enjoyable. The acting is decent, the story is average and the developing relationship between the editor Perkins and the writer Wolfe. The problem with this movie is that it fails to show the human side of its characters and even though there is great personal involvement and great weight upon the characters' shoulders, you as the viewer do not feel their pain, stress, or angst. What emotion is reveled is not felt with the same poignant punch that others movies have on their audiences. The movie is under two hours, but it feels like four. It has a good cast, but the acting is average at best. The story has compelling components but it lacks emotional draw. It is worth a one time watch, but a second watch is unnecessary.

"Genius" is the story of the great editor Maxwell Perkins and his relationship with Thomas Wolfe, author of Look Homeward Angel, You Can't Go Home Again, and other novels and stories. One thing before I start - the IMDb message board has to be the only place where people ADMIT they've never heard of Thomas Wolfe, much less read anything he wrote. I'm not sure I would be so forthcoming with that info. The cast is fantastic: Colin Firth as Perkins, Jude Law as Wolfe, Laura Linney as Mrs. Perkins, and Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein, who brings Wolfe's novel to Perkins in real life. Perkins is shown as a hard-working man, working with people like Fitzgerald and Hemingway and trying to balance his work with family, which consists of a wife and five daughters. He reads Wolfe's 300,000+ word novel and realizes the man is great genius - he also writes too many words. When he talks to Wolfe, he realizes why - he talks too many words, too. He's unmarried and having an affair with stage designer Aline Bernstein. It's a turbulent relationship that lasts around five years. His relationship with Perkins is turbulent too. At first Wolfe accepts Perkins' drastic cuts in his world; later on, he fights them. Nevertheless, Wolfe becomes a son to Perkins and Wolfe considers him his only friend. Jude Law and Nicole Kidman are unrecognizable in makeup, hair, and accent, and they both do terrific jobs. Law is a bombastic, exuberant, undisciplined Wolfe; Firth, who actually looks more like Thomas Wolfe than Law, is always excellent. Here he plays a restrained man who allows room for the temperaments of his various writers and attempts to be the voice of reason. Guy Pearce has a small role as F. Scott Fitzgerald. Something I read said he stole the movie. I love Guy Pearce, I would see him in anything (and have) but to me he wasn't Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald was a sweet-looking man, also a weak and drunken one, and Pearce did not portray that. Probably he did what the script and director dictated. I found this movie a good story that was not well-paced and on the talky side. I know today we're not used to movies with a lot of dialogue, but there's always room for sharp, witty dialogue as in "All About Eve," for instance. This didn't have enough of that kind of writing and became tedious and sagged in spots. The end of the film is very touching. I recommend seeing this for the performances.

GENIUS is the name attached to John Logan's screen lay adaptation of A. Scott Berg's 1979 novel 'Max Perkins: Editor of Genius' and Michael Granage directs a superlative cast in this recreation of the Depression of the 1930s America. Despite the fact that the film focuses on the raucous life of Thomas Wolfe, the true remarkable character throughout is Max Perkins – the editor at Scribner's in New York City who is responsible for the editing of the books of not only Wolfe but also of Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. The film plays the period well opening in 1929 when writer Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law), decided to keep the appointment made by Max Perkins (Colin Firth), editor at Scribner's, he had no illusions: his manuscript would be turned down as had invariably been the case. But, to his amazement, his lengthy autobiographical novel 'O Lost', which was to become "Look Homeward, Angel" was accepted for publication. The only trouble was that it was overlong (5,000 pages) and had to be reduced. Although reluctant to see his poetic prose trimmed, Wolfe agreed and helped by Perkins, who had become a true friend, managed to cut 90,000 words from the book, with the result that it instantly became a favorite with the critics and bestseller. Success was even greater in 1935 when "Of Time end the River" appeared but Wolfe's inability to cope with the editing process got in the way of his relationship with his mistress (Nicole Kidman) and with Max, and Wolfe died in 1938 after writing 'You Can't Go Home Again', 'The Web and the Rock' and some short stories. Wolfe remained faithful to his appreciation for Max Perkins and died from tuberculosis of the brain a lonely man at age 38. The supporting cast is superb – Laura Linney as Louis Perkins, Guy Pearce as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway – and both Law and Firth carry the story well, maintaining a credible relationship in all its stages. Unfortunately the ending of the film is gushingly saccharine – not at all a good choice. But the movie is a tasty bit of acting and history and deserves to be seen.