In the literary world, Max Perkins, the legendary editor at Scribner's Publishing House, looms large. He was the genius behind F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Rolf Lardner, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Whereas others in his profession often just went through the motions determining who to put forward, Perkins invested his time and talent in these writers, helping nurture their skills and vision.
Genius is a rousing biodrama based on A. Scott Berg's Max Perkins: Editor of Genius. In a feat of perfect casting, director Michael Grandage gives Colin Furth a chance to shine as this literary midwife. He is a pensive and dedicated editor who puts his work first and his marriage and family life second.
Jude Law is given time to strut his stuff as the flamboyant writer Thomas Wolfe who in 1929 is given a new lease on life when Perkins decides to edit his novel into what will be titled Look Homeward, Angel. This ambitious and ardent young man from Asheville, North Carolina, delivers a massive manuscript which immediately catches the editor's attention. (Perkins' daughter, reading over his shoulder comments, "That's a very long paragraph." Perkins explains, "It started four pages ago.") He tells Wolfe they will need to cut hundreds of pages but it will still be "his book." In the process of working with Perkins, the writer looks upon him as a friend and as a father figure.
This intrusive relationship does not go down well with Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman), a married woman who has been Wolfe's lover and patron. The director has given this gifted actress a plum role, and she makes the most of it by attacking Perkins when he replaces her as the leading advocate of Wolfe's flowery prose and later by rejecting Wolfe with a cutting assessment of his character.
In one of the pivotal scenes in the development of the friendship between the novelist and the editor, they go to a club where Perkins is introduced to the power of jazz to reframe classics and renew them through improvisation. Perkins begins to relish the companionship of this man who is so very different from him. But over time, the straight-arrow editor criticizes Wolfe for his selfishness and cruel behavior.
It is very interesting to watch these two struggle with the challenges of Perkins's minimalism and Wolfe's penchant for extravagance. Grandage rounds out our appreciation for Perkins as we see him interacting with his wife Louise (Laura Linney), F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce), and Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West).