(there's some spoilers here for those who don't know the entire Hawking story but they are imperative to the review).
This is one of those films that you probably want to give a miss. On the outside, it's a biopic of a man most people think they know about, the legend that is Stephen Hawking, and the film itself seems like some pretentious award bait (as a real life story involving some sort of disease is always a shoe in). But I'm here to tell you that it is all crap and I’m going to persuade you to go see it, because I want everyone to see it. I cried and I laughed. Sometimes you were still wiping away tears whilst giggling at a cracking one liner - and in a robotic American voice no less!
It's a beautiful piece of work - in heart, writing and cinematography. It's quietly powerful in the way that its emotion and humour is understated and natural. It resounds with you, like a ripple on water. Reverberates through you like your hand is on a speaker and some kid is playing non-stop drum and bass. Enhance by beautiful shots, the writing by Anthony McCarten (adapted from Jane Hawking's memoir of her life with Stephen) is emotional and filled with humour.
But the thing that really stands out, is its phenomenal performances from the lead actors.
Eddie Redmayne plays Stephen Hawking from 21 years of age to his early fifties and is outstanding. Every part of his body is thought out. He develops minute twitches and quirks of his face, fingers and feet to portray hawking's "oddness" before his diagnosis. He gradually builds on those throughout the film until you're suddenly staring at a perfect portrayal of the Hawking we know today. Eddie's communication through his eyebrow and eye movements once bound to his chair resonates clearly. He flips easily from pained and sad to happy, even when he's confined to facial tics to do his talking. He also nails the decline in speech alongside the body physicality. It's not over the top like many actors may have resorted to and it seamlessly ties together his physical performance with his emotional one.
By the time it becomes obvious that Jane is struggling with her duties as wife, caretaker and mother against her developing feelings for someone else, you actually feel like it was inevitable. You don't even blame her for doing so, thanks to Felicity's performance. You know it's wrong but you've been on the same journey she has and it's extremely difficult not to empathize with her. And when Hawking becomes attached to his nurse - someone who looks past the disease and treats him as more of a person that anyone else does, you again understand. It's confusing, he loves his wife and she stood by him from the beginning. But when someone comes along who likes him for who he is now, not the person he once was, isn't that a better love? As the audience, you feel all of these emotional conflicts with the characters on screen.
Seeing as the film is based on Jane Hawking's view of events and then reimagined for the big screen, you have to wonder how much license they took with the film. Did events really happen that way? Stephen Hawking commented and said the film is "broadly true" which is all you can hope for in a biopic and much more than what other biopics have given us recently. Was it really that romantic? My guess is no, but it gave the story its emotional punch. And boy did I love getting hit in the face with that. Some critics have taken issue with the fact it focused on Hawking's romance rather than his significant scientific achievements. Do not be fooled, they are in there - I learned a few new tidbits about black holes - but the film is based on his first wife's experiences with him. Of course it's not going to focus solely on his professional work.
Hawking was told he'd have two years to live after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease at 21 – it is now 50 years later and he's joined Einstein and Newton as one of our greatest ever scientific contributors. There's a poignant moment in the film when he's just been given his diagnosis and after a pause he asks "what about the brain?" and it gut punches you to imagine what if. What if the disease had affected his brain? Our knowledge of the world wouldn't be the same today. I fully believe that this film will live on in the same way - with a quiet fight and a passion that will be recognised and rewarded. I see a gold glint in Eddie's eyes and it's called Oscar.
"However bad life may seem, where there is life there is hope." - Stephen Hawking.
The Theory of Everything is out New Years Day!