Max Perkins was a book editor at Scibner and he oversaw some incredible authors with Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald, but this focuses on him being the first to truly believe in Thomas Wolfe and the relationship they would have until his early death.
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When Perkins was reading the manuscript from Wolfe he realised that this was something special and like nothing he had seen before, although the length of the novel was another potential issue and trying to help the genius of a writer certainly doesn’t seem like an easy task.
Throughout the film we see the attempted balance for Perkins with his family and how he neglects them at times when focusing on his writers. Wolfe became like the son he never had, and that certainly pushed the relationship and saw him try and protect him. We have Aline Bernstein who was having an affair with Wolfe away from her husband and children, she cannot cope when his attention is taken away from her.
The way authors are potrayed on film certainly marks them as being extremely difficult to manage and that they struggle with meaningful relationships. Is that just something that is a by product of supposed genius?
While the majority of the story is a quick look at Wolfe’s life, one cut very short given his age when he died everything felt a bit rushed at times. I actually would have loved more of Guy Pearce as Fitzgerald and Dominic West as Ernest Hemingway as they both seemed to so wonderful in the roles despite the small amount of screentime. Colin Firth was very good in the leading role, with Jude Law having some impressive moments. I did feel though that both Nicole Kidman and Laura Linney were very underused and could have offered the film a much better edge with better scenes.
