Review of Genius (2016) by Matt C — 22 Jun 2016

Colin Firth and Nicole Kidman are two fantastic actors that seem to mostly be in disappointing movies as of late. Genius premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year and failed to gain any notable traction, and after seeing the movie, it's easy to see why.

While I hesitate to call Genius a bad movie, I can't even grace it with the title of "okay" because of its missed opportunities or miscalculated decisions at multiple turns. There are interesting relationships and themes, but they're buried under some questionable direction and rough writing that forces the actors to try to redeem the movie.

The movie follows Max Perkins (Colin Firth), a book editor who has worked with authors such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway, as he works with Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law) on a currently 5,000-page novel.

All the while, it creates a further rift between Perkins and his wife Aline (Nicole Kidman). As a synopsis on paper, it sounds like the type of movie that would be released in the fall for awards consideration.

But while Genius has a strong main cast and the production values that you'd expect from a movie of this kind, it never quite gels together. Colin Firth is good as always, as is Nicole Kidman. I'd say that the latter is a bit better than the former because the former's American accent isn't entirely convincing at times, but both do fine work with what they're given.

The issue is that the movie could have given them a lot more to do, but John Logan's script is too surface-level to get the type of emotional pull that it should. The shifting dynamics between the three characters--how Wolfe's use of Perkins's expertise causes them to form a bond, and how that drives a wedge between Perkins and his wife--are interest, but not enough is done with them.

There are hints of what the movie could have been in select scenes, and it's because said scenes are simple and idea-based, being slightly elevated by the actors. There also seems to be a bit of a homoromantic bond between Wolfe and Perkins, but the movie doesn't seem to have the courage to actually explore it.

The script doesn't just suffer from its soft execution of its ideas, but in how it's structured. After about thirty minutes, characters remark on how Perkins and Wolfe have been working together for two years, but they just met and the intended timeline doesn't come across.

There are also some pretty brash actions made my characters, mostly Nicole Kidman's, that aren't telegraphed enough and feel excessive as a result, not earned. You may notice that I haven't mentioned Jude Law yet, and that's because I'm conflicted as to how I feel about his work here.

Director Michael Grandage seems to have encouraged the cast to turn their performances up to eleven, becoming more theater-oriented and almost cartoonish at points. This happens to Firth, Kidman, and Law, but Law gets the worst of it.

Sometimes the grandiose nature of his character works--he is a man that wrote a 5,000-page book, after all. But sometimes it just doesn't read as being intentional, but almost unintentionally comedic or just bizarre as a result.

It appears that Law did what he was asked to do and that Grandage's direction is to blame, as the misguided performances to affect everyone to a degree. Genius isn't--ahem--Genius, but I'd be lying if I called it a bad movie.

Just like you'd expect from a movie starring this trio, the production values are strong and the nostalgia of the time period works. The in-your-face sepia aesthetic is too much at first, but it's easy to get used to--it just doesn't add much.

John Logan's script and Michael Grandage's direction hampers what could have worked perfectly well otherwise with some underdeveloped themes and overacting, but those onscreen do what they can.

But Genius just isn't interesting enough, and that in and of itself stops it from getting a recommendation. 4.5/10, lame, two thumbs down, below average, etc.