Review of Genius (2016) by Jhep — 17 Jun 2016

What a wonderful film! What a wonderful FRIENDLY and authentic movie……FRIENDLY because it’s such an intimate work and a labor of love by everyone involved- the script writer, the director and the entire cast……and so the result is like getting a letter from a good friend you’d lost touch with years ago.

.......what I mean is that people who relate to this film will quickly BOND with it; BOND with Jude Law (dazzling and almost unrecognizable) and Colin Firth (who cements his claim to being the Undisputed Champion of a certain quixotic Hard-Won Common Sense, and Nicole Kidman (brandishing new maturity, bite and conviction !) ….

..what “grabs” you most is the film’s ring of truth; it really feels like an INSIDER’S TAKE on the nature of the creative process, the artistic inspiration that drives it and (something the cast presumably knows all too well !) the perils confronting talented artists in a decidedly ga-ga celebrity culture !….

.it makes sense that the two main stars of the film as well as the director should be Brits - what we get here is an Old World European culture commenting on a newfangled, New World "celebrity culture" bedazzled by philistine notions of power, money and creative merit (one in which money Trumps all ?).

…. all of which is to say, once again, that this is a very personal work and one that feels thoroughly genuine and authentic.