Review of Genius (2016) by Helen S — 21 Feb 2017

HBO gifted a free weekend of movie offerings recently. I was excited to see Genius on the menu. Genius is a biopic of the great writer Thomas Wolfe being shaped by the equally great book editor Maxwell Perkins and his immediate circle. New York in the Thirties, with luminaries Hemingway and the Fitzgeralds making appearances.

It's been quite a while since my encounter with Thomas Wolfe, but it brought back a flood of memories. I spent a whole winter, '74-'75 I believe, immersed for hours in oil baths, periodically turning the tap back on for more hot water as I drained out the cold to make room, while I read Look Homeward Angel and You Can't Go Home Again. A plot summary of the books seems deceptively simple: Small-town Southern yokel escapes to East Coast big town to spread his wings and explore Life. But the journey on each page was breathtaking. I spent lovely hours traveling word to word, reading and rereading as I unraveled the structure of each entwined sentence. It was the *how* of the communication that was gripping. How did Wolfe make a simple cocktail party into a lively joust of minds and wills? I remember in particular meeting Alexander Calder peddling his colorful circus mobiles amongst the cynical rich, his little toys whose delicately suspended moving parts exploded the art world with their power. Thomas Wolfe's perfect capturing of different reactions, although Calder's pseudonym of "Piggy Logan" betrays Wolfe's own personal evaluation of the artist. The winter whizzed by as I kept warm in the steam of words.

So I was quite excited at the chance to watch Genius. It doesn't need a big screen to convey the rich browns of pre-WWII. I'd read Thomas Wolfe long before the Internet so I knew very little about him as a person. I found Jude Law's portrayal of the author riveting. His Southern accent is mellow and educated, not distracting at all. Colin Firth as Max Perkins is supposed to be the focal point of the film, I think. But it is Jude Law's intense, long ramblings of prosaic images gushing forth that are compelling, as if lifted from his pages. It does make me want to read his writings once again. And even more astonishing is Jude Law when he is with his paramour Aline Bernstein, played by Nicole Kidman. Whenever they're together, publicly, he does this intense nonstop running of his hands and lips and whole body on her as if he is trying to inhale her energy or consume her and become part of her, as if he is liquid seeping into her pores, and yet it is very graceful and somehow natural. No clothes are ever discarded, but the intimacy is scene stopping even as everyone around continues talking. For Jude Law's performance alone, I recommend this film. I have no idea if it is true to who Thomas Wolfe was. But it feels right. There is more, of course, to the film, because it has been dubbed a "buddy" picture, a "bromance", a father-son relationship between the author and editor, all based on their factual regard for each other. And that may be quite enough for some people.