THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Review

After seeing The Imitation Game earlier this week and how it concerned itself with addressing the life of a genius while centering around a pivotal narrative in his life I more or less expected the same from The Theory of Everything where instead of the subject being a mathematician they are a theoretical physicist. While my main complaint concerning the biopic is that most follow a typical template The Theory of Everything does so with seemingly no ambition to be anything more. This was unanimously my complaint with the story of Alan Turing while working to its advantage because the story it chooses to document is infinitely compelling. With the tale of Stephen Hawking though, the story is simply him. This is a documentation of his life events, but there is no driving force or specific goal behind it that desperately needs to be accomplished. A set objective isn't always necessary and great, intriguing films can certainly be made without the need of some overarching intent driving the narrative, but here it felt as if that certain something was missing. That said, director James Marsh who is mainly known for his documentaries, has crafted a movie that is more memorable for its performances and smaller moments than anything else. As far as what the film is actually missing to make up for its somewhat lackadaisical approach to plot is hard to say. It has the two young stars at the head aging unconvincingly, it centers around a man who had to overcome great odds in his life and accomplished a great many things despite those odds set against him, but it also never challenges the audience to feel his struggles. I imagine the majority of the American public would recognize Hawking's name if not for the reasons he is well-known and so one has to wonder why this story was worth telling if the real life Hawking received credit where credit was due. As the film progresses though I began to understand why Marsh kept things as simple as he possibly could; this isn't a story about a specific thing Hawking accomplished, but the pure miracle that he kept accomplishing things at all after being diagnosed with motor neuron disease in 1963.  I understand the approach and the finished product is a fine enough summation of what has been a rather extraordinary life, but that doesn't excuse the fact it still feels like something crucial is missing that might have made the difference in a good film and an exceptional one.    

First Trailer for THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

In what will surely be hoping to become a serious Oscar contender this fall, Eddie Redmayne of Les Miserables portrays Stephen Hawking in the doctors formative years where he meets and falls in love with fellow Cambridge student Jane Wilde (Felecity Jones). Hailed as the extraordinary true story of one of the world’s greatest living minds this biopic certainly has a certain level of intrigue to it. The other factors that allow me to find this more interesting than the rather vanilla trailer suggests is the fact it is directed by James Marsh (Man on Wire). Marsh is not a director that has necessarily allowed himself to be restrained to one category or genre, but instead actually floats between making narrative features and documentaries. I can only imagine with this kind of history and pool of knowledge to pull from the filmmaker will find an interesting way to tell a good story while also successfully capturing the essence of his subjects and what makes them as much as the events worth paying attention to. Most people know Hawking received the earth-shattering diagnosis of motor neuron disease at age 21 which here seems to function as the reason audiences will need to get behind these characters and root for Hawking and his wife to defy impossible odds while breaking new ground in medicine and science. The films screenplay by Anthony McCarten is based on the memoir "Travelling to Infinity" written by Hawking's wife Jane and so there should be a certain level of insight here on the more personal parts of Hawking's life that could prove to deliver on those Oscar hopes. The Theory of Everything also stars David Thewlis, Emily Watson and will have its world premiere at the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival next month while opening in theaters on November 7th.