海角大神

'Genius': The presentation of a writer's craft is pure Hollywood

'Genius' stars Colin Firth as editor Maxwell Perkins and Jude Law as Thomas Wolfe, one of the writers whom Perkins edited. 

It鈥檚 tough enough making the case for a movie about a writer, but a movie about a writer and his editor? The literary life is notoriously difficult to dramatize. What, after all, can you do with all those endless hours confronting a blank page (or screen)? For this reason, most movies about writers highlight men, or women, of action 鈥� Hemingway is the prototype here. But how many swashbuckling editors have there been?

As it happens, Hemingway鈥檚 most celebrated editor, Maxwell Perkins, is showcased in 鈥淕enius,鈥� which follows the stormy relationship between the legendary Scribner鈥檚 editor and another of his famous writers, Thomas Wolfe. Along with F. Scott Fitzgerald, he and Hemingway constituted the holy trinity in Perkins鈥檚 galaxy.

Despite my inherent reservations about its viability, I had high hopes for 鈥淕enius.鈥� Colin Firth plays Perkins and Jude Law is Wolfe. The direction is by acclaimed British theater director Michael Grandage and the script, adapted from A. Scott Berg鈥檚 biography 鈥淢ax Perkins: Editor of Genius,鈥� is by John Logan, who last collaborated with Grandage on the powerful 2009 play 鈥淩ed,鈥� about another genius, the painter Mark Rothko.

But my worst fears were confirmed almost from the start. In order to inject some pep into the proceedings, Law has been encouraged to play Wolfe as a motormouthed rhapsodist who seems less inspired than unhinged. He鈥檚 exhaustingly exuberant. Perkins as played by Firth, meanwhile, is so low-key and undemonstrative that he seems like an altogether different species from Wolfe. In a less-than-masterly bit of stage business, Grandage has Firth keep his hat on for the entire movie, except, predictably, in its final, tear-jerky moments. I suppose the point was to punch up Perkins鈥檚 politesse 鈥� something an actor of Firth鈥檚 caliber is quite capable of doing hatless 鈥� but all it made me think was, What鈥檚 Max hiding beneath his hat?

I鈥檝e always had a tough time getting into Wolfe鈥檚 elephantine fiction, which is florid in the extreme, and 鈥淕enius鈥� isn鈥檛 exactly the best lure for potential readers. My sympathy in this film was almost entirely given over to Perkins. He was the man who carved readable books out of the morass of manuscript pages that Wolfe dumped on him. (For 鈥淥f Time and the River,鈥� his second novel, we see Wolfe deliver to Perkins鈥檚 office four crates of typed pages.) The inevitable split between Perkins and Wolfe, who had a surrogate father-son thing going, came about chiefly because Wolfe came to resent the reputation his self-effacing editor acquired for 鈥渃reating鈥� him. This split constitutes the only section of middling dramatic interest in 鈥淕enius,鈥� but it鈥檚 too little, too late.

To juice things up a bit, Hemingway (Dominic West) shows up for some marlin fishing, and so does Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce), on the skids in Hollywood. Wolfe鈥檚 married mistress, Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman), who supported him financially for a time, has a couple of high-strung scenes in which she proclaims what we already know 鈥� that this guy is a user who discards the things he loves. Practically the only non-British actor in the cast is Laura Linney as Perkins鈥檚 neglected wife, Louise. Maybe next we can have a movie about, say, Oscar Wilde, featuring an all-American cast?

For all its tony trappings, the presentation of genius in 鈥淕enius鈥� is purest Hollywood: Wolfe is a wild man who is too sensitive, too 鈥渃reative,鈥� to survive in this straitlaced world. Perkins鈥檚 genius, by contrast, is so pallid that it barely registers. Together these men do not, to put it charitably, make for an invigorating combo. Grade: C (Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and suggestive content.)