Based upon the memoir Traveling To Infinity: My Life With Stephen by Jane Wilde Hawking
Screenplay Written by Anthony McCarten
Directed by James Marsh
***1/2 (three and a half stars)
In my recent review of "St, Vincent," which I felt was good but not great yet did contain one of the finest performances of Bill Murray's career, I remarked that sometimes all a film needs to do is to just tell its story as well as it is able, regardless of whether it pushes the boundaries of the movies any further or not. Yes, this year, my favorite films have essentially all included the very types of movies that have bravely pushed those boundaries, challenged me, upended me or made me think about what movies are able to achieve in new ways. But even so, there is indeed something to be said for the film that is more straightforward and relatively inoffensive but remains a first class production of high quality.
Director James Marsh's "The Theory Of Everything," a biographical romantic drama centered around the life of theoretical physicist/author Stephen Hawking is precisely that kind of a movie, an experience that will certainly not make you re-think the power of the cinema but one that is indeed fully and instantly absorbing, deeply emotional yet provocative in its concepts and themes and one that features two unquestionably outstanding leading performances, which equally demand awards season attention.
Beginning at the illustrious Cambridge University circa 1963, "The Theory Of Everything" opens the miraculous odyssey of Stephen Hawking (an astonishing Eddie Redmayne) at the age of 21, when he was rapidly on his way to revolutionizing our collective knowledge of the universe through the merging of the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. At this same time, Hawking met and fell in love with Spanish/French student Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), a union that blossomed into a blissful romance.
All of life's elements seemed to be locked into its perfect place until Stephen Hawking's fateful diagnosis of a debilitating motor neuron disease related to Lou Gehrig's disease, an illness which initially gave him a prognosis of a mere two more years to live.
Battling the disease as well as his depression, Hawking, with Jane firmly at his side, continued to defy every single obstacle as his endlessly inquisitive mind produced new landmark scientific theories renowned the world over. But, even so, the struggle to maintain their love and marriage seemingly would prove to be even more difficult than discovering the possible beginning of time itself and the meaning of the universe.
"The Theory Of Every" is an exquisite production, lusciously filmed and lovingly executed with honest, probing and perceptive drama, as well as with a sweeping and rightfully painful romance housed at its core. In many ways, I felt this film to be precisely the kind of traditional yet first class motion picture that is bound to be recognized during awards season especially Oscar time. Much like Director Tom Hooper's Best Picture Oscar winner "The King's Speech" (2010), "The Theory Of Everything" contains such elegance to its aesthetics. The visual sheen by Cinematographer Benoit Delhomme is delicately superb, Anthony McCarten's screenplay is fiercely intelligent and all of the actors, who are excellent from top to bottom, are given much room to instill gravitas and spread their creative wings.
This feat is accomplished heroically by Eddie Redmayne who delivers a spectacular and enormously transformative performance as Stephen Hawking. Undoubtedly destined for Oscar recognition, I certainly wish to alert to you that I never felt for a moment that Redmayne's performance was self-congratulatory, histrionic or painfully melodramatic. Certainly, it is a performance of immense physicality as Redmayne, over the course of the film, begins to resemble the real world Stephen Hawking more and more (so much so that you may be performing double takes to ensure that you are witnessing the actor and not stock footage). It is so wondrous to see just how Redmayne has seemingly folded his entire body inwards to portray Hawking, an accomplishment which is more than fitting as his entire performance feels inhabited from the inside out. Redmayne's Stephen Hawking dials past the iconic status and never once do we see the "hero." Redmayne gives us a figure that is so recognizably human and knowable. Especially when his body begins to fail him.
The early sequences of "The Theory Of Everything" really struck a chord with me as Eddie Redmayne captured a certain and frightening fragility within the failures of the flesh. I think it would be hard pressed for anyone viewing this film to not place themselves into Hawking's shoes when the motions and movements our body undertakes, the very ones that we all indeed take for granted, are just not available to us anymore. In addition to just being housed inside of those thoughts in regards to our mortality, those feelings surfaced for me when I thought of what I go through whenever illnesses inevitably arrive, especially my bouts with minor vertigo, an ailment I have been struggling with for thirteen years. Dear readers, I must admit to you that I am not the best patient, as I am extremely impatient and overly anxious to return to the business of my life, from home and work responsibilities to writing on this blogsite. There is more than enough for me to do in a day, just as it is for all of you. Yet, I am not one to just take it in stride when I am forced into times of convalescence. And at times, it is very unnerving as I can never know exactly when I will be all of myself again. So, imagining a point when I would never be my complete self just terrified me as I truly have no idea of what I would do with myself if I could not be who I feel that I need to be.
Harboring those very thoughts and emotions as I watched this film made me wonder tremendously just how did the real Stephen Hawking force himself to continue onwards. Within the film, Redmayne presents no such easy answers within his performance as we see him exist through some extremely dark days and nights, signifying for himself, and for all of us, the painful but harsh reality that whether through science or metaphysics or both, we are not in as much control as we may think we are or wish to be. Nonetheless, "The Theory Of Everything" illustrates that Stephen Hawking carried onwards anyway for what else would he, or would we do in the same situation? Eddie Redmayne simply nails Stephen Hawking's relentless drive to keep probing for answers to the cosmos and existence itself while also depicting his frailties, his darkest fears, his human failings and most surprisingly, his sharply sardonic wit.
As brilliant as Eddie Redmayne is, he does not walk away with the entire movie. Felicity Jones is 100% Redmayne's equal and furthermore, she accomplishes this feat in what is arguably the more difficult role. Jones, as aided by the screenplay and James Marsh's expert direction gives us a performance, while less showy, that refuses to allow Jane Hawking to be swept into the background or reduce her to existing as the long suffering but endlessly supportive wife to the brilliant but ailing genius. Jones completely brings Jane Hawking to vivid three dimensional life because we are given a portrait of a woman who houses her own desires and educational pursuits as well as her own world and existential worldview that is just as rich and as intensely passionate as her husband's. For instance, where Stephen Hawking is an atheist who for a spell utilizes his scientific work to basically prove the non-existence of God, Jane challenges him fiercely time and again.
But it is through the love story where we truly see Stephen and Jane Hawking as flesh and blood human beings the most as their domestic hopes and struggles are again so instantly recognizable and therefore relatable. In fact, while watching "The Theory Of Everything," I was reminded of the love story contained within Director Steve James' "Life Itself," the wonderful documentary based upon the life of the late Roger Ebert as we were given front row access to the relationship between Ebert and his wife Chaz Ebert, most notably, during his own deteriorating health combined with his own unstoppable creativity and ultimately, his passing.
Here is where I felt "The Theory Of Everything" functioned at its most bittersweet and perceptive as Marsh presents us with this iconic figure who could figure out the mysteries of the universe, time and space but was still undone by the even more mysterious universes contained within the human heart. Felicity Jones shines especially in her role as we are given an explicit journey into the heart of the caretaker, a role that is often thankless and even moreso when the ailing partner in the relationship is globally famous and revered. Jones shows us through Jane Hawking how love and devotion can slowly transform into obligation, frustration, anger, resentment, loneliness, hopelessness and wanderlust (as represented by her return to the church to sing in the choir and her attraction towards church musician Jonathan Jones as played by Charlie Cox). which then continues to transform into guilt, remorse and regret and then, back to love and devotion all over again.
In some respects, this aspect of "The Theory Of Everything" also places this film somewhere in the same neighborhood as Director Terence Malick's controversial and majestic "The Tree Of Life" (2011), which also juxtaposed the birth, life, decay, death and rebirth of a family alongside the similar circle of existence as played throughout time, the cosmos and all living things down to the smallest molecule. But unlike the esoteric nature of that film, "The Theory Of Everything" is as accessible as it is artfully stately.
If I did have any flaws with the film, I wished for some key information regarding Stephen Hawking's health that the film not once touched upon. If you remember, when Hawking was first diagnosed, he was given a life expectancy of only two years. Now, Stephen Hawking has survived and thrived up to the age of 72! And yet, nowhere in the film were we given any medical and/or scientific information as to what procedures Hawking underwent to ensure his survival. I felt that just adding that crucial bit of information would have given this film a greater push over the top for me. But as it stands, and as strong as this film is, it still felt like a big black hole.
That being said, James Marsh's "The Theory of Everything" is a stylish, refined, sophisticated film front-loaded with two of the finest performances I have seen this year at the movies. No, it didn't re-invent the wheel and nor did it have to. For when a motion picture is this exceedingly well crafted, what else could I really ask for?
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