Movie: The Theory of Everything

The Theory of Everything:  the Stephen Hawking movie.  Sometimes an interesting story, when coupled with excellent acting, is enough.  This film, which is based on Jane Wilde Hawking’s autobiography, opens with Stephen Hawking as a 21-year old doctoral candidate at Cambridge and runs through the publication of his best seller “A Brief History of Time”.  It is a story about the individuals, Stephen and Jane, and their marriage.  Eddie Redmayne gives a magnificent performance as Hawking.  (I’ve now seen three films in a row where the leading male actor offers an Oscar quality performance.)  Prior to seeing Theory of Everything, I knew nothing about Hawking’s personal life.  Hawking and Jane meet at Cambridge and become involved prior to learning that Hawking has been diagnosed with what the film calls “a motor neuron disorder” - amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or, to most of us, Lou Gehrig’s disease.  At the time of diagnosis, Hawking is told he has only two years to live; he is now 72.  The film’s strength lies primarily in the scenes with Jane (Felicity Jones), particularly when she motivates and convinces Hawking not to let the disease own him.  Jane, Stephen or both are on screen for most of the film’s 123 minutes.  The first half of the movie is a true love story.  There are also some comic lines, partly based on the fact that Hawking was able to father 3 children, the last one after the disease had taken considerable control over his body.  James Marsh is the director and he allows the story to unfold.  Unfortunately, the film drifts into focusing on Hawking’s awards without really explaining the change that had occurred in the couple’s relationship.  Also, one is left to wonder whether the fact that Hawking has lived 50 years longer than originally predicted is due solely to excellent medical care.  The films holds your interest because it doesn’t try to explain the math.  It would, however, have been a more fulfilling story if we’d been given more of an explanation as to what happened in the relationship and why Hawking has so thoroughly surpassed the ALS survival odds.   That said, fundamentally, Redmayne and Jones’ performances are sufficient reasons to see this film.