Genius

Films about writing are inevitably burdened with trying to create a visually exciting presentation of someone putting words to paper. A film about editing somebody else's writing is even trickier. Director Michael Grandage's Genius is based on A. Scott Berg's award-winning 1978 biography Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. As one of the most talented editors of his era, Perkins shaped the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway into classics, while his ability to tame Thomas Wolfe's sprawling writing into the remarkable Look Homeward, Angel was a feat of editorial mastery. Rather than focus on the process of literary creation between writers and editor, the film instead centers on the clash of personalities between the garrulously extroverted Wolfe and the excessively restrained Perkins. Unfortunately, Jude Law's absurdly oversized interpretation of Wolfe (complete with a theatrical Southern drawl) comes across like a meth-fueled Foghorn Leghorn, while Colin Firth infuses Perkins with so little energy that he seems to be borderline catatonic. Laura Linney and Nicole Kidman are wasted in disposable roles as, respectively, Perkins' wife, and Wolfe's lover and benefactor, theatrical set and costume designer Aline Bernstein. A disappointing misfire, this is optional, at best. (P. Hall)