“Who is the real genius?” That's what some may ponder after seeing “Genius” at The Harbor Theatre.

Novelists, novel lovers and those who enjoy a well-written and acted film will thoroughly enjoy this week's local cinematic offering. “Genius” is based on the biography, “Max Perkins: Editor of Genius,” penned by A. Scott Berg, screenplay by John Logan. It’s the true story of the professional and personal relationship between editor Perkins and Thomas Wolfe.

Perkins is portrayed by Colin Firth, Wolfe by Jude Law. Both of these men are outstanding — their synergy is palpable. Firth plays this most influential of editors — with an unusual attachment to one particular hat (we never see him without it, he never takes it off) — with intelligence and warmth (not that we've come to expect any less). He understands and admires the creative spirit possessed by his authors, which also included Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald. He is in awe of their gifts and has genuine concern for them.

And Law ... Law may receive an Oscar nod for his portrayal of Thomas Wolfe. Law's immersion into this role is impressive. From the moment he appears on the screen you can't wait to experience him again. I say “experience” him because Wolfe commands your attention. He is a theatrical, emphatically expressive human with a penchant for speaking just as passionately as he wrote. What a treat and challenge it must have been to portray Wolfe. And to have been someone who actually knew him.

Theatrical costume designer Aline Bernstein was someone who knew him quite well as Wolfe's paramour, played by Nicole Kidman. Theirs was a stormy May-December love affair that lasted years. Wolfe's muse was also his financial backer and the first person to believe in him as a writer. When Wolfe returns from Perkins’ office with the news of Scribner wanting to publish his first novel — and the $500 advance — Bernstein is thrilled, but the editing process takes two years with “Look Homeward, Angel” cutting time with her out. Wolfe doesn't even have time to attend one of Bernstein's opening nights. He has to work.

Perkins' wife Louise Saunders can relate. So can their five daughters. Like “Angel,” Wolfe's second novel, “Of Time and A River,” took years to whittle down from its 5,000 original pages. Wolfe delivered it to Perkins in six orseven boxes, chapters bundled with twine — to a reasonable size.

As Louise and their five daughters are leaving for a fishing vacation without Max, the couple argue.

“It's my job, it's what I do. An editor gets a writer like Tom once in a lifetime.”

“You are never going to get this time back with your daughters.”

“I have to work,” Perkins shouts back angrily. “As long as it takes!”

The bond that was forged between these two men is powerful indeed. Wolfe is the son Perkins would never have. Perkins was editor and friend for Wolfe — he tells Max one night after dinner at the Perkins house, that he never had a friend before he met him.

The scenes in which they are working together — cutting out the thousands and thousands of excess words (of course the fact that Wolfe never stopped writing, even when his work was in the editing process didn't help, timewise), bonding together over bourbon and the evening Wolfe takes his editor to a jazz club so Max can better understand Wolfe. One night after much drinking, Wolfe takes Max to the apartment he lived in when he wrote “Angel,” and then up to the rooftop to show him the view. Standing there, Wolfe's head on Max's shoulder, Max says, “They're calling you a genius, God help you.”

From the moment Max Perkins began reading Wolfe's manuscript for “Look Homeward, Angel,” he could not put it down. The voice speaking from the pages is like no other ...

“. . . a stone, a leaf, an unfound door; a stone, a leaf, a door. And of all the forgotten faces. Naked and alone we came into exile. In her dark womb we did not know our mother's face; from the prison of her flesh have we come into the unspeakable and incommunicable prison of this earth.

Which of us has known his brother? Which of us has looked into his father's heart? Which of us has not remained forever prison-pent? Which of us is not forever a stranger and alone?” (Excerpt from the novel)

Poetic. Youthful. Questioning. Passionate. This is Thomas Wolfe who lived to see two of his three novels published. “You Can't Go Home Again” was released a few years after his death at age 37, but not by Scribner.

Wolfe learned a great deal from Perkins. The hardest lesson on the subject of word count (and what writer can't relate to that!); less is more. That a writer need not write a 50-page introduction to a character ... that kinda thing. Wolfe learns to make cuts himself, though they make him bleed. Perkins tells him, “It's what we (editors) lose sleep over; are we really making books better or just different?”

Wrote Wolfe: “What I had to face, the very bitter lesson that everyone who wants to write has got to learn, was that a thing may in itself be the finest piece of writing one has ever done, and yet have absolutely no place in the manuscript one hopes to publish.”

So, who is the real genius here? Sounds like a subject for fine debate. Just know that “Genius” is a film to be savored, word for precious word.

The film opens at The Harbor Theatre Friday, July 1 at 7 p.m. and continues at 7 p.m. through Thursday, July 7 with a 2 p.m. matinee on Sunday, July 3. The theater is located at 185 Townsend Avenue.