The Theory of Everything (2014)
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The Theory of Everything Movie Review
The Theory of Everything is a 2014 biographical drama film directed by James Marsh and starring Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. It’s a conventional, but very well made and moving biopic.
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“There should be no boundaries to human endeavor.
We are all different. However bad life may seem,
there is always something you can do, and succeed at.
While there’s life, there is hope“
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Stephen Hawking, a brilliant astrophysics student working on his research, learns that he suffers from motor neuronal disease and has around two years to live. This movie functions more as a romance than as a biopic to both its strength and its detriment. It is frustrating to witness a film about an iconic scientist that fails to properly engage with his scientific ideas. The fact that the feature purposely avoided the scientific aspect of his life, mostly focusing on his personal life was annoying.
That was certainly disappointing and the historical inaccuracy on display here was immense. It doesn’t take too much reading on your part to realize that they took way too many liberties with the central relationship. But when all is said and done, the movie ultimately succeeds as a deeply moving, touching testament of love and how those highest emotions can prevail through the worst of circumstances.
This entire movie rests largely on the performances to carry it through the finish line, and thankfully those performances are fantastic. Eddie Redmayne ended up winning an Academy Award for his stellar work here, and although this is on the surface a standard biopic role, Redmayne excelled at playing Hawking both physically and emotionally. He was entirely believable as he was perfectly cast.
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But a lot of praise should also be directed toward Felicity Jones, who was so admirable as his strong wife. There were so many scenes here where just on her face you could see many emotions play out and those moments where she suffered internally while watching her husband deteriorate were the best and most powerful parts of the movie. I would, thus, arguably call her the best performer in the movie.
As for the others, David Thewlis was ridiculously sidelined given his caliber, but Charlie Cox was quite effective as Stephen’s friend and eventual lover to Jane. That particular relationship was rushed and I personally would have cut it from the movie, but at least they were historically accurate in this instance, so it worked in that regard.
The Theory of Everything was absolutely wonderful in its first half when the two met and exchanged ideas and fell in love. It is the second half that became too conventional in its approach as it hit all the same biopic genre notes, and although it was very well made and executed, it was still familiar. The ending was quite touching, though.
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The dialogue is strong, but not as amazing as this type of movie demanded. But the score from Johann Johannsson is fittingly modern and evocative of science in its elegant, mysterious notes throughout. It’s a versatile score that elevated each scene significantly. The cinematography is also beautiful, the editing was excellent and the movie not being too saccharine given its subject matter is definitely an accomplishment. It’s such a well made, engaging and moving biopic that would have been even better had it been directed by a more competent director given that James Marsh failed to elevate it with his somewhat pedestrian directorial style.
The Theory of Everything is a conventional, but very well made biopic that is more concerned with the personal than the professional life of Stephen Hawking to both its strength and its detriment. It needed more confident and unique directing, but the acting performances from Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne are both phenomenal and they elevated their roles significantly. The romance was deeply moving and effective while the score, cinematography and editing are all stellar.
My Rating – 4
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