This is one of Jude Law's better characterisations as he plays troubled writer Thomas Wolfe. His almost biblical tomes don't exactly excite most literary agents but the well established Max Perkins (Colin Firth) bucks that trend by giving him a chance. Now there are some editorial caveats to this commission - not least some substantial shaving of hundreds of the pages, but the two start to work together building a relationship that sees Wolfe focus and succeed. That success, of course, is a beast with two heads and when the next book comes along - weighing in at some 5,000 pages - the pair must take a hatchet to the work and that starts the writer on a spiral of bitterness and resentment. Perhaps it's only his adoring "Aline" (Nicole Kidman) who can stop his inevitable path to self destruction? Meantime, it falls to Mrs Perkins (Laura Linney) to ensure that her husband doesn't follow his friend into the emotional doldrums - no easy task. This is quite an interesting, if speculative, biopic of a man obsessed. With success, yes - but also with his own ideals of poetry and storytelling and it's that compulsion that tests every relationship he ever has. Law exudes some of that frustration effectively here, well foiled by an understated effort from Firth. There are few cameos from Guy Pearce (F. Scott Fitzgerald) and Dominic West (Ernest Hemingway) to put a little more meat on the bones and to help illustrate just how fickle their success could be whilst John Logan's screenplay keeps the dialogue tight.