Review of The Theory of Everything (2014) by Therocksbarney — 05 Jan 2015

If you want a film that is going to inspire you, not with fictional stories, but instead with the use of a true one grounded in reality than “The Theory of Everything” is what you should go out and see right now. It is, simply put, a fantastic, life-affirming film that is propelled forward by its story and its leading roles. In that order. And the rest of the film is pretty good too. But “The Theory of Everything” isn’t all about Stephen Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne) and how incredible his story is. Instead the film is “part biopic, part love story” with the latter telling us about the imperfect marriage between Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde (played by Felicity Jones).

Eddie Redmayne is fantastic as Stephen Hawking and what is best at how he portrays Hawking getting worse in regards to his Motor Neurone Disease (/ALS). Redmayne starts the film as a young Hawking and we can tell this guy is clever. But it is as the film goes on that Redmayne’s performance gets better. Halfway through the film we are looking at a slouched Redmayne, slurring his words and occasionally smiling and by the end of the film we are looking at Redmayne playing Hawking as he is now. In testament to this the real-life Stephen Hawking commented, on seeing the film, that he felt he was sometimes looking back in time at himself. I’m with him. His performance is again, incredible, as incredible as the story he has the privilege to tell. If I don’t see him in the running for the Best Actor Oscar come February then I will be surprised.

Felicity Jones performance as Jane Wilde is magnificent too. Although on the surface she doesn’t seemingly require the various skills that Redmayne has to delve into, she again does the story and her real-life counterpart justice. Although she starts the film as a student, we come to see her having to raise 3 children as well as look after her husband and you feel that she really is going through all this. Again, the real-life Jane Wilde was impressed with Jones’ performance. When I think about Best Actress potential this year, she should also be in the running for the appropriate Oscar.

Harry Lloyd is brilliant as Stephen’s university friend Brian too. Although Brian is a mere composite character, he is a brilliant one at that. His attitude is drawn from Jane’s descriptions of “Stephen’s fellow lodgers and research students” at Cambridge: “They talked to him in his own intellectual terms, sometimes caustically sarcastic, sometimes crushingly critical, always humorous. In personal terms, however, they treated him with a gentle consideration which was almost loving.” He could also be in for an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor.

But it is the story that really propels “The Theory of Everything” forward and it provides for half the reason as to why the films leads are fantastic. The film itself is based on Jane Wilde’s 2008 autobiography “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”, a flattering account of their initial marriage and a significantly different, revised edition of the 1999 autobiography “Music to Move the Stars: My Life with Stephen”, a less flattering account of their marriage, sparked when Hawking left Wilde for his nurse Elaine Mason in 1990. (It’s worth noting they quietly divorced in 2006 following a 5 year period of rumours over whether Mason abused Hawking, apparently hitting him, throwing him around and even leaving him in the sun to burn for several hours.) The revised edition was sparked by her and Hawking managing to develop a good working relationship with Wilde.

The story of “The Theory of Everything”, as I said earlier, is “part biopic, part love story”. We learn in the film of how clever Hawking was and how he refused to let his disability stop him from being great, initially managing to overcome the 2 years he was given to live and ultimately managing to become a household name. But this isn’t what “The Theory of Everything” is really about. Although the film does give Hawking his due, it’s not as if Eddie Redmayne has a bigger role than Felicity Jones. Their roles are coequal and the film thus focuses on Stephen and Jane’s relationship, in particular how Wilde had to cope with raising 3 children whilst looking after her husband.

“The Theory of Everything” is a fantastic film with a fantastic story and two fantastic leads. The only problem I had with the film, and it’s always there for me when I watch this kind of film, is although it is never boring, you do find yourself occasionally wondering how long is left. But this is not the final thought I want to leave you with. Instead, let me remind you that “The Theory of Everything” is again, a fantastic film and worth seeing if you get the chance. It tells you something that apparently a nurse wiped a tear from Hawking’s eye when he first saw the film.