Review of The Theory of Everything (2014) by Ian H — 08 May 2015

The performances are certainly excellent (although I'll argue to my last day that a creative performance like Jake Gyllenhaal's in Nightcrawler is far more powerful than Eddie Redmayne's (admittedly spot-on) pantomime of Stephen Hawking) and James Marsh certainly has an excellent eye.

It's the uninspired script that makes The Theory of Everything feel like a totally empty affair. Anthony McCarten's screenplay simply tries to cover too much ground and thus loses sight entirely of what three-dimensional characters look like.

Again, the actors are definitely up for it and both Redmayne and Felicity Jones are terrific, they just don't have a lot to work with. Though the film plays Stephen and Jane Hawking's romance as something as epic as the universe, it never feels that way.

I never felt the gravity of their love because the film is too busy racking up Cinema Sins. Fortunately there are some beautiful moments where the cast and crew overcome the writing, but it's just not enough.

The story just needs to be smaller and needs focus (a la, say, the Diving Bell and the Butterfly) but it's clear that whoever was throwing money at this film would rather have Oscar bait than what could have been an intense portrait of a romance despite some pretty terrible circumstances.