The Theory of Everything review
Eddie Redmayne is utterly convincing as Stephen Hawking in this curiously fast-paced biopic
(Picture from Universal Pictures)
Hollywood has gone biopic berserk, what with the Bobby Fischer film, Pawn Sacrifice, the Alan Turing Film, The Imitation Game and now the Stephen Hawking film, The Theory of Everything. Apparently it’s the year to celebrate twentieth century intellectuals with psychological and physical hurdles – all of which, ironically, are portrayed by some of cinema’s plainest-looking actors.
Yet Eddie Redmayne is utterly convincing as Hawking. His uncanny likeness to the physicist is the highlight of this curiously fast-paced biographical account – one that underplays his academic and professional achievements, centring instead on the “physics of love”.
This is the natural result of the film being based on the memoirs of his first wife, Jane Wilde (portrayed by Felicity Jones). We’re immediately swathed with the notion of love at first sight, while scenes of intellectual foreplay clarify their romantic compatibility. Then we are seemingly confined to her perspective as Hawking battles motor neuron disease.
The science is certainly kept to a digestible quantity. In fact, the extent of Hawking’s intellect is conveyed sparingly, having epiphanies when staring into his coffee mug and getting his head caught in his jumper.
There is a place for his “There should be no boundary to human endeavour” speech, but space boffins will be disappointed to see his black hole and gravitational singularity theories breezed over without a great amount of detail. Instead, The Theory of Everything is committed to showing us how such a disease can affect a relationship. The story has enough substance to sustain itself without the need for further dramatization, but director James Marsh can only scrape the surface, as he races us through the entire two-hour running time.
Chris Edwards - CynicalCME
