Movie #1649 "Genius" --- the genius in the title could refer to Thomas Wolfe, the writer who wrote so much for his first novel, that he used a wheelbarrow to carry in the 1200 page manuscript to his publisher, Max Perkins, and they cut it down to half the size to publish it. It took another 2 years to cut down the next book he wrote --- so Wolfe was known to write a lot, and perhaps that is why his writing hasn't been as well received as his contemporaries, whom the publisher Max Perkins, probably the genius referred to in this title, also worked with: men such as F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, and Erskine Caldwell. According to the film, Wolfe was recognized almost immediately as an author who deserves to be published by Mr. Perkins and probably Wolfe is the one he had to work hardest with because the words, each and every one of them, were so sacred to Wolfe himself. This movie just covers the relationship between Perkins and Wolfe, which started out with Perkins believing in Wolfe and nurturing him in the cutting of his first novel. And that relationship goes through a few other books. And although the movie covers the building up of that relationship, it also shows the undoing of it, by Wolfe. I thought the film would be so much better with Colin Firth and Jude Law leading the illustrious cast, but the pacing and the story could be more compelling. The movie crawls through his life so slowly as if it is a metaphor for just how long it would take to read one of his books is. (I had firsthand experience of that when a college class required me to read Wolfe's "You can't go home again" ) I'd give this one a 3 out of 5. Only a few people might find this an entertaining piece to watch --- and they'd be mostly writers or lovers of the written word. But if you want to see it, you can get the DVD from Netflix.
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