Movie Review: 'The Theory Of Everything'

An ambitious cosmologist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) badly wants to define the equation that could explain everything. He wants to lock Time up with all its mysteries in an equation but before that happens, Time shows its might and pits him against the gruelling motor neuron disease when he is only 21. A doctor tells him he is left with 2 years but his love of life, also his first wife, Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones) looks after him so well that Hawking becomes a world known name in next 30 years but she gets jaded in the process, singlehandedly supporting him and raising their three children. Responsibility-laden Jane then gets further close to the choirmaster Jonathan (Charlie Cox) who offers her support in the beginning, before offering himself in totality.

The movie belongs to Redmayne who portrays a lean, hunched, bespectacled Stephen with an ever-wearing Hawking smile and letting out perfect Hawking gestures, both disease-borne and natural ones. Even though during its early part the movie shows the nerve to carry such loaded biopic with multiple dimensions to balance, the latter part lacks the punch and dilutes into normalcy ranging within obvious and known. The movie exhibits theories on life with opportunities and vulnerabilities, love, patience, determination, and attitude, but floats mainly on the surface without sufficiently allowing us to look into the life of the living legend.

Staying away from Christopher Nolan’s path of testing the intellect of the audience, director James Marsh makes a movie for the masses and lays out the story of Stephen Hawking after filtering out all the heavy scientific theories and other complexities. The theory Of Everything is based on Jane Hawking’s memoir which has more messy things about their marriage breakdown and has also Stephen being painted in not so charitable light. Overall the movie looks like a sanitized version of the selective yet inspiring reality, packaged with undoubtedly brilliant performances, and that makes it certainly watchable.

If you think life sucks then go and see how this tough guy sucks life.