Review of The Theory of Everything (2014) by Joe M — 14 Jun 2015

The Theory of Everything is a truly remarkable film about one of the most remarkable men who has ever lived. Eddie Redmayne puts down one of the best performances of the year with his representation of physicist Stephen Hawking.

The film begins with Stephen Hawking about to complete his thesis topic. He meets Jane Wilde (played by Felicity Jones) and the two instantly start to fall in love. From the start you see the progression of Lou Gehrig's disease in Redmayne's performance. Starting with small limps, awkward pen holding, clumsiness, and shakiness it culminates in a fall on the way to class. Doctors tell Hawking he only has two years to live and takes the news very hard.

Wilde stands by his side during all of this and tells him of her love. The two get married and have children. All of this occurs while Hawking's body muscles continues to degrade from him having to use crutches to the eventual use of an electric wheel chair. Redmayne plays the struggle to speak and move brilliantly. You can see the pain and sadness with each progression.

Felicity Jones does an excellent job in her own right. Portraying someone in love who struggles to keep everything in order. The struggle is one of mutual love and respect without anger. Jones pulls off an indescribably good performance showing how loved ones adapt to difficult situations. You can't help but feel for her as the two start to grow apart.

My only real criticism would be in the story itself. It seems to almost downplay the importance of what Stephen Hawking discovered and it never gives you a scope of how it affected the science world. It's focus on the personal life story comes at the cost of not showing you how brilliant this man is to overcome so many physical obstacles to accomplish so much. The movie isn't short on telling you how brilliant Stephen Hawking is but they don't show it.

It is also unfortunate some scenes seem a bit dumbed down for the audience and the film spends too much time arguing the possibility of God, time that would have been well spent on showing Hawking's accomplishments in more detail. The acting in The Theory of Everything is world class and nothing short of brilliant, the cinematography and score are beautiful, but the story left me wanting more.