THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (9 out of 10) Directed by James Marsh; Written by Anthony McCarten and Jane Hawking, based on Hawking’s book “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”; Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, Harry Lloyd; Rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and suggestive material. In limited release November 14. 123 minutes.
How much do you know about the life of physicist Stephen Hawking? Apart from his repeated guest appearances on “The Simpsons” and “Futurama,” not much, I’m betting. “The Theory of Everything takes us back to Hawking’s life at Cambridge in London in 1963, as a gawky but promising young “cosmologist,” which he describes as “a kind of weird church for atheists” determined to find the one single equation that describes the universe.
Into his life steps Jane Wilde, a young, churchgoing student of Spanish and French poetry, and the young couple fall deeply in love. But as their romance blossoms and Hawking comes up with some brilliant theories that will eventually become the basis for his doctorate, he is diagnosed with “motor nueron disease” (aka ALS aka what everyone was dumping ice buckets over their heads for earlier this year), and given 2 years to live.
Ironic spoiler alert: since Hawking is alive and well enough in 2014 to participate in the ice bucket challenge, he beats that prognosis. And so we see the relationship between Stephen and Jane progress through all of the different stages of their life over the ensuing decades.
And here, the work of castmembers Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are truly put to the test. Redmayne’s performance here is the stuff Oscar-bait is made of. He brings an incredible amount of humor to his portrayal, but this movie will make you cry worse than anything since “The Fault in Our Stars.” Jones also knocks it out of the park in her portrayal of Jane Hawking and the incredible amount of hardship she faced as Stephen’s wife, as they drift apart as a couple because of his illness, as they drift back together, as she makes life and death decisions for him, and so on.
The work of director James Marsh is also incredible here. Best known previously for his documentary work, such as “Man on Wire,” he brings that same sense of life, joy, and narrative to this biopic as he did to “Man on Wire,” which is one of the best documentaries ever. (You should really check it out, fer instance, streaming right now on Netflix!) He also employs a very light touch: much of this could have been presented in a very heavy-handed fashion, but he allows his actors to merely present the story in a very real and relatable manner.
The Alamo Drafthouse, who kindly hosted our screening, asked us to tweet a #3WordMovieReview and the only things I could come up with were:
This is a movie that a lot of people will be talking about, and is the perfect date night movie for couples who like their romance twinged with discussions about supermassive black holes and general relativity vs. quantum mechanics.
It’s one of the best films of the year and I can’t recommend it highly enough.
9 out of 10.