THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

GRADE: A+
Starring Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewliss, Charlie Cox
Screenplay by Andrew McCarten, based on the book by Jane Hawking
Directed by James Marsh
Rated PG-13 (Adult themes, profanity)

It's very understandable if your first instinct upon seeing advertising for The Theory of Everything is that it's the sappiest kind of Oscar bait. Truth be told, between the somewhat syrupy poster and the general vibe I was getting from a lot of directions, I had very little enthusiasm going into this film. It just struck me as the sort of film that exists only to win awards and make people cry at how romantic it is. And being familiar (albeit only vaguely) with the story of Stephen Hawking's marriage, I was worried that this was going to be a whitewashed Hollywood feel-good romance that more or less deified him. Happily, it isn't. Yes, it's blatant Oscar bait. But it's good Oscar bait.


The film begins with Hawking (played by Eddie Redmayne of Les Miserables) as a student at Cambridge in the 1960s. Hawking is a brilliant student who seems to be sort of treading water until he comes up with something truly unique (basically a thin, nerdy British version of Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind but with better people skills). He meets and falls in love with the lovely Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), then is diagnosed with ALS. Since there are no ice buckets to be found, they get married. While Stephen is given only two years to live, he defies that by continuing on despite progressively losing more and more of his motor function, until his confined to a wheelchair and capable of only very slight movement of any kind. Jane remains committed to Stephen throughout his struggles and the births of their children. But there's no denying it's a difficult life for both of them, as Stephen goes on developing the brilliant theories that placed him alongside Albert Einstein in the pantheon of scientific genius. It's here that I should probably mention that those looking for a film about Hawking's theories and his contribution to science and human thought are probably going to be disappointed. While Andrew McCarten's screenplay does an infinitely better job of introducing us to Hawking's theories than A Beautiful Mind did with those of John Forbes Nash, it barely scratches the surface. And it's not even a film about Stephen's bravery or resilience. It's about the relationship between Stephen and Jane.


Redmayne has the showy, Oscary role here, and he's brilliant. Not only does he look like Hawking, his ability to twist and contrort his body to resemble the ravages of the disease is nothing short of astonishing. But even better, he's able to convey a great deal of emotion even after Stephen has lost the power of speech and can barely move anything but his eyelids. It's a performance that easily deserves to be toward the top of the list of Oscar contenders. But Jones brings just as much to the film in a less obvious way, and I'm afraid she'll be overlooked. Jane is the heart and soul of the film, the character we come to love, and without Jones' sublime, sensitive performance, The Theory of Everything would slip into being something akin to The Iron Lady, which is to say a great central performance with nothing surrounding it. Instead, it's a fully realized film, and one which is surprisingly sensitive and fair to both sides of a very complex relationship. Director James Marsh takes a fairly straightforward approach to tell the story, and resists the urge let his directing steal focus from the actors. It's a soft approach, and I find myself once again having to rely on the word "sensitive" to describe it. That's really the word which to me most defines the film.


I found The Theory of Everything to be the kind of film which strikes a very personal chord for me, and I was both very moved and very shaken up by it. It's a beautiful film which I will have to revisit somewhat sparingly as it did provoke a wave of complicated and powerful emotions from me. While some of this was very specific to me, it's hard for me to imagine that many viewers won't find themselves feeling quite a bit because of this movie. If you're prone to crying at movies, you'll cry at this one. But it earns its tears honestly, not through overwrought weepiness or cheap manipulation. It's a very unique love story that may very well be different from what you expect. And in its center are two of the very best performances of the year.