Film
Genius is a chronicle of editor Max Perkins (Colin Firth – Kingsman: The Secret Service, Magic In The Moonlight), and his time at Scribner, having discovered Ernest Hemingway (Dominic West – Money Monster) and F. Scott Fitzgerald (Guy Pearce – Iron Man 3), But now he faces a new challenge, with the likes of Thomas Wolfe (Jude Law – Spy, The Young Pope).
The film begins with an introduction to Wolfe and Perkins, revealing the struggle that Wolfe has had to endure in order to find a publisher for his lengthy work. This introduction extends to Wolfe’s wife Aline Bernstein (Nicole Kidman ) and the ever mounting feeling of neglect she experiences due to Wolfe’s obsession with his work.
Based on a true story, Genius enthralls. With the ensemble of talent in all the main roles, viewers are treated to some riveting acting duels, set in days gone by, in a different time. Coupled with some excellent direction, this is a well rounded work of film.
There are times when one feels the story is progressing a bit slow, but this is a drama, and a biographical piece, so those are to be expected.
A stark look at the struggle and rise, finally leading to alienating others, and eventual ailment, the story Genius tells is both entertaining, and informative, presented in a top class manner. A film well worth seeing.
Disc
Genius is available now, to purchase on disc, in South Africa.
Overall, the disc is of a decent quality. Technically there are no issues, and while lacking any sort of additional material on the disc, the main feature is a good one.
Video
Video is encoded at a high average bitrate. There are no visible artefacts, and no colour bleed. Several of the scenes are in dark settings, and maintain sufficient detail, with no image noise.
Viewers with the necessary hardware or software can scale up to a larger or higher resolution screen, shoudl they wish.
Audio
Sound is presented in Dolby Digital 5.1 and a stereo 2.0 soundtracks. It is encoded at a high average bitrate, with clear dialogue via the centre speaker.
There is not much use of the surround channels, but with a film of this genre, that is to be expected. These do however expand the on-screen world when used, and further draw the viewer in to the story.
Navigation
Navigation is simple, with a static image as the menu background, and accompanying music.
There are sub-menus for audio and chapters.
The chapters sub-menus present four colour, motion thumbnails each, with chapter numbers. Some guesswork might be needed to pick a specific point in the main feature to navigate to.
The audio sub-menu offers choices between 5.1 and 2.0 soundtracks.
Bonus Features
There are no bonus features, other than trailers for Alone In Berlin, Café Society and Last Days In The Desert.
These can be fast-forwarded, but not individually skipped. They autoplay at the start of the disc, and can not be accessed via the main menu.
