Film Review - The Theory of Everything

First serious post for my new blog.

Caution Spoilers!

Today we went to see 'The Theory of Everything'. 

The first thing that I have to note before I even get to the film was the demographic of the audience. It was surprising to se an audience which was so old. I wonder if this was due to Hawking's peak of popularity being 30 years ago or down to the nature of the film. It also meant a lot of people turning up late. I am going to write a separate blog about that. 


The documentary nature of the film meant that I was already familiar with the story. As such I know there were some liberties taken with the story but I can understand most of them in terms of directorial and scripting choices. I could argue with a few of them but that assumes the previous versions and details that I have read elsewhere are more accurate than this version which may not be the case. The film being based on Jane Hawking's book means that the story is certainly more sympathetic to her than most other accounts.

There are some interesting directorial choices when sections are turned into a home-video effect. I assume that these are based on someone having actually made a home video of those events and the director having chosen to copy those home movies. Apart from that the styling seems consistent with the era and I can forgive the standard Hollywood failure that everyone looks like their clothes came straight out of the shop. As the clearest example, despite much focus on Hawking dragging his shoes during the early stages of his disease they never seem to get scuffed. Less forgivable is that the furniture, wheelchairs, computers, tents an so on seem to be mostly 70s originals which show 40 years of age despite supposedly being new. One or the other I could have lived with but next to each other they do occasionally grate.

On the acting side there are two major characters in the movie Stephen and Jane Hawking. As the book is written from her perspective it is no surprise that Felicity Jones is able to elicit sympathy from the audience. A lot of other film-goers and reviewers are giving her very good reviews, but in my opinion the material is very favourable to her character and she is given plenty to work with. So while it is a good turn, there is nothing really special about it. 

Eddie Redmayne's performance as a gradually deteriorating Hawking is something special though. Early on he exhibits some of the key mannerisms of Hawking, and as he deteriorates through the film he becomes ever more impressive in delivering an almost perfect portrayal of the man. By the point his portrait is used to replace the original photograph on the book cover he is so close to the real thing that I almost missed the change. 

There is a slightly annoying dream scene right at the end where he rises from his chair and reverses the whole process of his deterioration in about 5 seconds. That threw me out of the film a little bit, and I personally could have done without it. It did give Redmayne a chance to show his entire transition in reverse in one smooth move but it didn't really work for me. 

Overall I quite liked it.
Rating - 7/10 and most of those points go to Eddie Redmayne.