Genius would have worked better if it was rated PG-13
Disney Channel could have made a solid raunchy college comedy.
Every once in a while, I come across a movie that pleasantly surprises me. For some, I expect it to be a fun train wreck due to a silly premise, but end up genuinely laughing and enjoying it (The Hebrew Hammer). For others, it looks bad, but I was not prepared for how hilariously bad it would be (The Room). Genius (1999) falls closer to the former.
Genius’s success primarily comes from its lead actor, Trevor Morgan. Despite what TV Tropes says, I support hiring actual children to play children’s roles. It can be risky, but there are talented young actors out there who can bring life to an otherwise standard role. They can’t all be 20–30-somethings pretending to be 17 (looking at you, Grease).
Morgan plays Charlie Boyle, a 13 year-old genius who rejects every top university to attend a small Wisconsin college. He wants to work with this scientist there who is trying to find a way to defy gravity.
The beginning of the film emphasizes how smart this kid is, yet this universe never seems to be fully aware of it.
Exhibit A: In the beginning of the film, Charlie helps his father smooth off the ice in the skating rink. He uses this small machine that does in seconds what a Zamboni would do in minutes, using only battery power (versus a bulky, propane-fueled engine). The father is amazed, but doesn’t seem to realize that this invention would be the most in-demand thing in hockey since the hockey puck.
Seriously, the movie could have ended right there after he sold that invention for millions. He would make headlines and be recognized as a pioneer in his craft by the very sport he idolizes. Oh well.
Naturally, Charlie’s biggest flaw is his personality. He’s a hardcore nerd. He’s horrible at understanding social cues, probably because he’s too busy inventing things. Ironically, he’s deeply in love with hockey, a very social sport. Other kids don’t like playing with him because he’s too much of a dork.
It’s at this point that you might wonder what this movie is even about. In the beginning, I couldn’t tell where it was going.
It turns out that there are three main plots happening (yes, three in this 90-minute film): Charlie’s experience in college, his experience in middle school, and the final game for the college hockey team.
Let’s start with the college angle. Because someone thought this would be a good idea, 13 year-old Charlie works as a teacher in his college as per the terms of his scholarship. It doesn’t help that all of the actors look more like PhD candidates than undergrads.
To make matters worse, his roommate is the hockey team jock who harasses and embarrasses him in class. Not a great situation overall.
His only source of joy at college is the time he spends with his mentor, Dr. Krickstein. He and Charlie share similar qualities. He’s (presumably) single, kind of crazy, and is your typical wacky scientist. His lab is underneath the hockey rink because it’s convenient for the plot. That’s really all there is to say about him. He doesn’t have much personality outside of that.
This would have made a great raunchy comedy if they added some staples of college. Where’s the booze? Where’s the smoking? Where’s the crippling depression? It would have been way more fun if Charlie was a bit older and you juxtaposed his childlike innocence with the more adult side of college life. You’d have to omit the middle school plot line, but that’s fine.
Unfortunately, we only got the watered-down, DCOM equivalent of that, but Charlie’s still a compelling character. When he meets a girl named Claire (Emmy Rossum of Shameless and Phantom of the Opera fame) at the ice rink, he lies and says he’s a news student at her middle school. He ends up changing his entire personality and creates an alter ego named Chaz to impress her. Charlie becomes this stereotypical ‘bad boy’ who wears leather jackets and has a less nerdy hairstyle.
Claire is a bright student, so Chaz pretends to be bad at math in order to have her tutor him. It’s nice seeing their relationship build, especially when the plot thickens and we find out that her father is the coach for his college’s hockey team.
Obviously, it gets pretty predictable at this point. Claire eventually finds out and gets pissed at him, he apologizes and leaves the middle school, and then they eventually get back together. That’s the end, right?
Nope! We still need to talk about the weird hockey game scene.
This scene was important for Claire’s father, who would be fired if he lost this game. To be honest, he was going to get fired anyway for this because they had to cheat in order to win.
Earlier in the movie, Charlie figured out the science behind defying gravity (Elphaba would be so proud). He attached microchips to players from the other team to control their skates and make them float in the air.
I’m not sure what the lesson is here. Are we supposed to side with Charlie? Is cheating okay? There were no real consequences to their actions. The scene happened, they win, and then never speak of it again.
Minus that entire scene and the implications of it that are never addressed (they would be so disqualified), the movie is pretty good for what it is. Hopefully I’ll see more of these actors in future DCOMs.
Next up: Don’t Look Under the Bed, some Halloween-themed movie that I know little to nothing about.
