Review of The Theory of Everything (2014) by Rob M — 21 May 2015

A friend of mine shared her views about biopics and the acting challenge that it requires. In the last 10 years, there have been 6 biopic Best Actors award winners and 4 non-biopic. The last six years it has been alternating between biopics and not. Last year was NOT with Matthew Matthew McConaughey. The year before was Yes for Lincoln. Then The Artist (No), Kings's Speech (Yes), Crazy Heart (No), Milk (yes) and Last King of Scotland (Yes). If the pattern continues, and it will, this year we have a biopic winner. But history aside, what about the movie?

I had heard mixed reviews about the film. All the nominations quite frankly surprised me. The two key performances with Redmayne and the Wife (Felicity Jones) are solid. This is a story of remarkable resilience for a man who was given a death sentence ("two years to live") early on in his life. We see his struggles and the brilliance of his mind. Much like Daniel Day Lewis with Christie Brown in My Left Foot, you have a physical transformation of the man as he succumbs to the disease. His body folds away underneath him and settles uneasily into a wheelchair ultimately. There is a scene of tremendous struggle where he tries to get up a flight of stairs to his bedroom with his young toddler son watching. Another after he loses the power of speech. Still, he has the love and support from his Wife. She is good as well. Although for the older scenes as she ages, she is just a little too young looking still. I was awaiting her Jennifer Connolly A Beautiful Mind moment where she explodes from frustration in dealing with her everyday life, but she doesn't. Maybe that is a strength in the performance, but somehow I think that more range can be shown. Or perhaps it comes from the fact that this movie is based upon Jane's own book of living with Stephen. It reminds me of The Affair (Season 1 finished by me earlier in the year - where perspective plays a huge roll and the same scene is shown to different eyes and lens). Maybe that is HER interpretation of events with him. Redmayne has to show range through his face, and body language as his character loses speech fairly early on. I did find it predictable as a story, and I cannot think of this as the Best Picture. I like Imitation Game and Birdman more than this -unfairly comparing completely different films. But back to my friend's point, Professor Hawking is still alive. There is much footage about his life and his history. In many ways Redmayne is replaying old home movies. To that end, I am still backing Cumberbatch as a better performance and gets my vote for Best Actor. And although Alan Turning was a biopic as well, there you don'y have the celebrity attached to his name nor all the home movies and interviews. But to me, there is more to fill in (and act) for a character who was not as well known.