Genius Movie Review Movies for Grownups
Genius Movie Review - Movies for Grownups Movies for Grownups
As played by Oscar winner (The King's Speech), Perkins is an editor possessed. After a long day wielding his red pencil in Manhattan, he reads book manuscripts on the train home to Connecticut, then barely kisses his wife () and five daughters on their heads before retreating to the study for more literary infusion. Through Scribner's doors one day blows Wolfe (), an unpublished novelist whose wildly inventive but seemingly endless torrent of prose is desperately in need of radical pruning by Perkins, a master of simplification and story structure. Courtesy of Marc Brenner/Roadside Attractions Colin Firth and Jude Law superbly portrays the volatile relationship between book editor Maxwell Perkins and novelist Thomas Wolfe. For the next hour or so of Genius (based on a National Book Award–winning biography by ), director Michael Grandage and screenwriter (Gladiator, Skyfall) provide a spellbinding fly-on-the-wall perspective to the pair's creative process. There are nose-to-nose confrontations over manuscript length — Wolfe brings the draft of his second novel into the office in a wheelbarrow — as well as page-tearing, line-scrawling, chain-smoking montages that resemble training scenes from Rocky, only this time the protagonists pound Remington typewriters instead of slabs of beef and guzzle straight whiskey instead of raw eggs. Along the way, the two men's relationship grows from editor and author to something more akin to father and son. The two stars play off each other masterfully. Law's Wolfe is a force of nature, expounding on humanity and the cosmos, wild hair flying, arms spread in what can only be described as a universal embrace. Firth's Perkins — his felt fedora seemingly pasted to his head, even at the family dinner table — remains a heroically stoic presence, lips pursed, eyes narrowing as he formulates literary frameworks strong enough to contain the young man's churning supernovas of creativity. AARP Members:
Each star brings a different kind of energy to his part, but the film's most compelling moments come when the intellectual action screeches to a halt and someone reads a bit of Wolfe's writing out loud. For these passages, screenwriter Logan wisely lets Wolfe's authorial voice commandeer the proceedings. It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe the first such recitations of Wolfe's raw work were, to the literary-minded, equivalent to the revelation of sacred scripture. At one point, Perkins starts to agonize about his role as syntactical surgeon: "That's what we editors lose sleep over, you know," he sighs. "Are we really making your books better, or just making them different?" , her eyes aflame, nearly sets the screen on fire as Wolfe's antagonist-benefactor-jilted lover Aline Bernstein, a married stage designer who first brings the writer to Perkins' attention. Both she and Linney break your heart a bit as their characters come to realize they have been, for the moment at least, consigned to the colophons of their men's life stories. The guys, to be sure, pay a price. But only one of them learns a lesson. Writers and their editors know too well how easily artistic aspirations can end up dashed on the rocks of opposition — or, worse, indifference. But that's not something easily conveyed to outsiders, who tend to view aesthetic calamities as small potatoes in a world where people, you know, starve. The genius of Genius is its patience in building its case. The film's climactic moment is signified by nothing more than Perkins finally removing that stupid hat. And yet we catch our breath when it happens. For two hours we've explored the power of the written word, and in an instant a minor gesture adds a visual exclamation point. Words, pictures — it doesn't matter. Genius proves that in the right hands, either one can sneak up and swallow you whole. Bill Newcott is a writer, editor and movie critic for AARP Media. Featured AARP Member Benefits See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures
' Genius' A Literary Buddy Flick
As Thomas Wolfe and Max Perkins Jude Law and Colin Firth have the write stuff
(Video) Genius Movie Trailer: A chronicle of Max Perkins' time as the book editor at Scribner, where he oversaw works by Thomas Wolfe, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald and others. Rating: PG-13 Run time: 1 hour 44 minutes Stars: Colin Firth, Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, Laura Linney Director: Michael Grandage The list of great movies about authors could fill, well, a book. But movies about editors? That's something you don't see every day. Splendidly heartfelt and defiantly cerebral, Genius trains a sepia-toned spotlight on one of the best book editors ever: Maxwell Perkins of Charles Scribner's Sons, who early in the 20th century guided the pens of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Both of those authors make cameo appearances in Genius, but the film's real focus is on Perkins' volatile relationship with his most enigmatic discovery: mercurial, self-destructive Thomas Wolfe.As played by Oscar winner (The King's Speech), Perkins is an editor possessed. After a long day wielding his red pencil in Manhattan, he reads book manuscripts on the train home to Connecticut, then barely kisses his wife () and five daughters on their heads before retreating to the study for more literary infusion. Through Scribner's doors one day blows Wolfe (), an unpublished novelist whose wildly inventive but seemingly endless torrent of prose is desperately in need of radical pruning by Perkins, a master of simplification and story structure. Courtesy of Marc Brenner/Roadside Attractions Colin Firth and Jude Law superbly portrays the volatile relationship between book editor Maxwell Perkins and novelist Thomas Wolfe. For the next hour or so of Genius (based on a National Book Award–winning biography by ), director Michael Grandage and screenwriter (Gladiator, Skyfall) provide a spellbinding fly-on-the-wall perspective to the pair's creative process. There are nose-to-nose confrontations over manuscript length — Wolfe brings the draft of his second novel into the office in a wheelbarrow — as well as page-tearing, line-scrawling, chain-smoking montages that resemble training scenes from Rocky, only this time the protagonists pound Remington typewriters instead of slabs of beef and guzzle straight whiskey instead of raw eggs. Along the way, the two men's relationship grows from editor and author to something more akin to father and son. The two stars play off each other masterfully. Law's Wolfe is a force of nature, expounding on humanity and the cosmos, wild hair flying, arms spread in what can only be described as a universal embrace. Firth's Perkins — his felt fedora seemingly pasted to his head, even at the family dinner table — remains a heroically stoic presence, lips pursed, eyes narrowing as he formulates literary frameworks strong enough to contain the young man's churning supernovas of creativity. AARP Members:
Each star brings a different kind of energy to his part, but the film's most compelling moments come when the intellectual action screeches to a halt and someone reads a bit of Wolfe's writing out loud. For these passages, screenwriter Logan wisely lets Wolfe's authorial voice commandeer the proceedings. It requires no stretch of the imagination to believe the first such recitations of Wolfe's raw work were, to the literary-minded, equivalent to the revelation of sacred scripture. At one point, Perkins starts to agonize about his role as syntactical surgeon: "That's what we editors lose sleep over, you know," he sighs. "Are we really making your books better, or just making them different?" , her eyes aflame, nearly sets the screen on fire as Wolfe's antagonist-benefactor-jilted lover Aline Bernstein, a married stage designer who first brings the writer to Perkins' attention. Both she and Linney break your heart a bit as their characters come to realize they have been, for the moment at least, consigned to the colophons of their men's life stories. The guys, to be sure, pay a price. But only one of them learns a lesson. Writers and their editors know too well how easily artistic aspirations can end up dashed on the rocks of opposition — or, worse, indifference. But that's not something easily conveyed to outsiders, who tend to view aesthetic calamities as small potatoes in a world where people, you know, starve. The genius of Genius is its patience in building its case. The film's climactic moment is signified by nothing more than Perkins finally removing that stupid hat. And yet we catch our breath when it happens. For two hours we've explored the power of the written word, and in an instant a minor gesture adds a visual exclamation point. Words, pictures — it doesn't matter. Genius proves that in the right hands, either one can sneak up and swallow you whole. Bill Newcott is a writer, editor and movie critic for AARP Media. Featured AARP Member Benefits See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > See more Entertainment offers > Cancel You are leaving AARP.org and going to the website of our trusted provider. The provider’s terms, conditions and policies apply. Please return to AARP.org to learn more about other benefits. Your email address is now confirmed. You'll start receiving the latest news, benefits, events, and programs related to AARP's mission to empower people to choose how they live as they age. You can also by updating your account at anytime. You will be asked to register or log in. Cancel Offer Details Disclosures