Review: Genius
A predominantly refined chore with moments of interest that are few and far between, Genius depicts the relationship between Maxwell Perkins (Colin Firth) and Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) as the former shepherded the latter into shaping two of his greatest novels, Look Homeward, Angel and Of Time and the River.
At the time of their encounter, Perkins was one of the most widely known editors of his time, heralding the new literary generation headed by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway into public consciousness. Wolfe had blustered his way out of North Carolina, and had been rejected by every publisher in New York before Perkins, impressed by his manuscript of O Lost (later titled Look Homeward, Angel), decided to take a chance on this talented but thoroughly undisciplined dynamo. If Perkins thought convincing Wolfe to excise 90,000 words from the 1,000-page-long manuscript was a struggle, then their next collaboration was outright madness. For his follow-up to the successful and highly praised Look Homeward, Angel, Wolfe presented Perkins with 5,000 pages of bundled paper carried in several crates to his office.
The editing of that second novel, Of Time and the River, would take place over the course of two years, a period that not only tested the men's friendship but strained their relations with their significant others, both of whom understood all too well how Wolfe regarded Perkins as a father figure and how Perkins, surrounded by five daughters, thought of Wolfe as the son he never had. The editing process is not necessarily an inherently filmic one and, while Wolfe's relative obscurity helps in certain aspects, it can also be a hindrance since it's difficult to convey exactly how Perkins guided Wolfe into an arguably better direction. In the early stages of their relationship, Perkins tells Wolfe that it's not about the page count, it's about telling the story and bringing it to the public in its best possible form, yet in many respects, it does end up being about the page count. Wolfe was a veritable waterfall of words - the man simply could not stop writing (a request from Perkins for a transitional line brought forth 50 pages of back story for a supporting character). One of the best moments occurs as Perkins and Wolfe debate a section in which the novel's protagonist falls in love at first sight. The back and forth, the doubting and convincing, the inspiring and restraining as pages of paragraphs are distilled into a handful of sentences possesses an energy that is anomalous to the rest of the film.
Guy Pearce as a broken F. Scott Fitzgerald and Dominic West as a robust Ernest Hemingway appear in a handful of scenes to demonstrate differing sides of a writer's life as well as Perkins' talent for fidelity to his writers, both personally and professionally. Even with the little time afforded them, Pearce and West make strong impressions. Firth once again crafts virtue out of Perkins' measured calm, whilst Law is excellent as Wolfe, who can barely contain the multitudes bursting within him. The highest plaudits, however, must go to Nicole Kidman as Aline Bernstein, Wolfe's patron and lover who sacrificed her marriage, children and dignity to support his writing. Wolfe's friendship with Max unleashes her jealousy and bitterness and one remembers how superlative Kidman is when portraying characters with dangerously sharp edges. Aline's final scene with Wolfe, as she expresses how clear-eyed she has become about his callousness and mercurial nature, is as triumphantly ruthless as Olivia de Havilland's ascending the stairs at the end of The Heiress.
The performances are the point of Genius, which is London theater director Michael Grandage's feature film debut. It's a handsomely mounted production, but one that feels smothered. The drab colour palette of browns, browns and more browns doesn't help matters; neither does the muted characterisation of Perkins. This may have been dictated by Wolfe's outsized persona - could the film have withstood two bold personalities? Obviously not, since even someone as indomitable as Hemingway is kept to the sidelines, but it also does a disservice to Perkins when it has Wolfe taking him to a jazz club to point out how his writing is all about being original, blazing new trails and not being comfortable. Genius may not spotlight him as such but if anyone knew about taking risks, it was Perkins who fought to get writers such as the then-unknown Fitzgerald and Hemingway published, who was the first to publish the likes of J.P. Marquand and Erskine Caldwell, whose advice to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for The Yearling and James Jones for From Here to Eternity was responsible for their successes, and without whom Wolfe himself would never have found such success. Perkins was a genius, but that Perkins is unfortunately nowhere to be found in Grandage's film.
Genius
Directed by: Michael Grandage
Written by: John Logan; based on Max Perkins: Editor of Genius by A. Scott Berg
Starring: Colin Firth, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, Laura Linney, Guy Pearce, Dominic West, Vanessa Kirby
