lucycnnff
Lifetime Total
1+
IMDb Member
7 years
Reviews
Genius (2016)
A Terrible, Inaccurate Cliché-Ridden Movie
SPOILER ALERT!
I recently saw "Genius," a cliché-driven borefest that was not a good movie, let alone "a true story." I know the history well; the screenplay seemed to get very little right (other than the fact that Wolfe and Perkins met in 1929). Where a little subtlety would have worked wonders, they went for the cliché every single time.
1) O Lost was not rejected by every publisher in New York. It certainly wasn't the end of the road by the time it landed on Perkins' desk. When they received the 1100 double-spaced pages (not single-spaced, as the movie states), more than one editor at Scribners read portions of the typescript and loved it.
2) Wolfe's lover, Aline Bernstein, was out of his life by the time Look Homeward, Angel was published. She never left her family. She was almost 17 years older than Wolfe. In the movie Jude Law and Nicole Kidman look like they're the same age. 3) Wolfe was 6'6" tall as an adult and it completely shaped his identity. He could never, ever fit in anywhere and was stopped frequently by people making jokes at his expense. He wrote the story, "God's Lonely Man" about living as an extremely tall man. And I don't care how much Jude Law overacts, he can't make up that difference. (He's also six years older than Wolfe was at the time he died.) 4) While Aline did attempt to take some pills in the Scribner's offices (in front of Wolfe and Perkins), they immediately responded, calling the night watchman who called a doctor in the building who ascertained that Aline hadn't swallowed any pills. She certainly wasn't left standing by the elevator as she is in the movie. (Berg, 276) 5) Aline did have words with Perkins over Of Time and River because she didn't want to appear as the character Esther Jack (Berg, 242); they did not remain enemies. Perkins' daughter Peggy actually apprenticed with her after college. 6) Wolfe met Fitzgerald once (in Paris), and exchanged some very interesting letters with him, but they never met in Hollywood (although Wolfe did visit there once). They never had dinner at the Perkins' house and he never met Zelda. 7) During the editing Of Time and the River, Perkins lived in a townhouse on E. 49th Street, a short walk to Scribners. He and Wolfe worked on the manuscript in the Scribner's offices . They never drank and edited in a bar. And Perkins NEVER would have drunk from a pint bottle on a fire escape as he does in the movie. 8) Wolfe did not roll in a wheelbarrow of handwritten manuscript when he submitted Of Time and the River. He always had a typist (even as he was writing on the fridge!) She would pick up his pages and type them as he worked. It was submitted in stages. 9) Both Wolfe and Perkins had very little interest in music, so of course he never took Perkins to a nightclub in Harlem and propositioned women in front of him. 10) The reasons why Wolfe left Scribners are much more complicated than presented in the movie. Yes, people were writing about the "Scribner's assembly line" and Wolfe left himself open to that charge, but there were also three lawsuits that complicated things further. And Perkins knew that Wolfe was writing about Scribners people and his loyalty was to Scribners. It was excruciating for both men. 11) Wolfe did not write his final letter to Perkins after brain surgery (he never regained consciousness). He wrote that letter when he was in the hospital in Seattle with pneumonia. (That's got to be the hokiest scene that I've witnessed in a long time---and it didn't happen that way.) 12) The final scene in the movie didn't happen that way either.
A much more touching, actual event occurred when Perkins went to New Jersey in February 1938 (after Wolfe left Scribners) and testified on Wolfe's behalf in a trial where Wolfe was suing a dealer to get back his original manuscripts.Wolfe and another witness who was a friend of both men, Belinda Jelliffe, were so touched by the fact that Perkins wore a hearing aid (for the first and last time) because he wanted to make sure he heard the lawyers' questions. He and Wolfe spent time together after Wolfe won the trial, the last time they were together.
I could go on and on. There are so many factual errors in this movie, terrible miscasting and, to cap it all off, in practically every scene Wolfe acts like a "monster" (Scott Berg's term). While he was an extremely complicated man, he wasn't a monster If you asked Max Perkins and Aline Bernstein whether they would have preferred not having Wolfe in their lives, the answer would be a resounding no.
Ignore this movie and go to the source: read Look Homeward, Angel and/or The Short Novels of Thomas Wolfe.
I recently saw "Genius," a cliché-driven borefest that was not a good movie, let alone "a true story." I know the history well; the screenplay seemed to get very little right (other than the fact that Wolfe and Perkins met in 1929). Where a little subtlety would have worked wonders, they went for the cliché every single time.
1) O Lost was not rejected by every publisher in New York. It certainly wasn't the end of the road by the time it landed on Perkins' desk. When they received the 1100 double-spaced pages (not single-spaced, as the movie states), more than one editor at Scribners read portions of the typescript and loved it.
2) Wolfe's lover, Aline Bernstein, was out of his life by the time Look Homeward, Angel was published. She never left her family. She was almost 17 years older than Wolfe. In the movie Jude Law and Nicole Kidman look like they're the same age. 3) Wolfe was 6'6" tall as an adult and it completely shaped his identity. He could never, ever fit in anywhere and was stopped frequently by people making jokes at his expense. He wrote the story, "God's Lonely Man" about living as an extremely tall man. And I don't care how much Jude Law overacts, he can't make up that difference. (He's also six years older than Wolfe was at the time he died.) 4) While Aline did attempt to take some pills in the Scribner's offices (in front of Wolfe and Perkins), they immediately responded, calling the night watchman who called a doctor in the building who ascertained that Aline hadn't swallowed any pills. She certainly wasn't left standing by the elevator as she is in the movie. (Berg, 276) 5) Aline did have words with Perkins over Of Time and River because she didn't want to appear as the character Esther Jack (Berg, 242); they did not remain enemies. Perkins' daughter Peggy actually apprenticed with her after college. 6) Wolfe met Fitzgerald once (in Paris), and exchanged some very interesting letters with him, but they never met in Hollywood (although Wolfe did visit there once). They never had dinner at the Perkins' house and he never met Zelda. 7) During the editing Of Time and the River, Perkins lived in a townhouse on E. 49th Street, a short walk to Scribners. He and Wolfe worked on the manuscript in the Scribner's offices . They never drank and edited in a bar. And Perkins NEVER would have drunk from a pint bottle on a fire escape as he does in the movie. 8) Wolfe did not roll in a wheelbarrow of handwritten manuscript when he submitted Of Time and the River. He always had a typist (even as he was writing on the fridge!) She would pick up his pages and type them as he worked. It was submitted in stages. 9) Both Wolfe and Perkins had very little interest in music, so of course he never took Perkins to a nightclub in Harlem and propositioned women in front of him. 10) The reasons why Wolfe left Scribners are much more complicated than presented in the movie. Yes, people were writing about the "Scribner's assembly line" and Wolfe left himself open to that charge, but there were also three lawsuits that complicated things further. And Perkins knew that Wolfe was writing about Scribners people and his loyalty was to Scribners. It was excruciating for both men. 11) Wolfe did not write his final letter to Perkins after brain surgery (he never regained consciousness). He wrote that letter when he was in the hospital in Seattle with pneumonia. (That's got to be the hokiest scene that I've witnessed in a long time---and it didn't happen that way.) 12) The final scene in the movie didn't happen that way either.
A much more touching, actual event occurred when Perkins went to New Jersey in February 1938 (after Wolfe left Scribners) and testified on Wolfe's behalf in a trial where Wolfe was suing a dealer to get back his original manuscripts.Wolfe and another witness who was a friend of both men, Belinda Jelliffe, were so touched by the fact that Perkins wore a hearing aid (for the first and last time) because he wanted to make sure he heard the lawyers' questions. He and Wolfe spent time together after Wolfe won the trial, the last time they were together.
I could go on and on. There are so many factual errors in this movie, terrible miscasting and, to cap it all off, in practically every scene Wolfe acts like a "monster" (Scott Berg's term). While he was an extremely complicated man, he wasn't a monster If you asked Max Perkins and Aline Bernstein whether they would have preferred not having Wolfe in their lives, the answer would be a resounding no.
Ignore this movie and go to the source: read Look Homeward, Angel and/or The Short Novels of Thomas Wolfe.