For a man who believed that time had a beginning and an end, I guess it makes sense that his biography should be told in a linear fashion. Playing like Stephen Hawking’s Greatest Hits, “The Theory of Everything” is a blow-by-blow account of his remarkable life, from socially awkward scientist-in-training to husband, father and finally, the wheelchair bound physics superstar.
The story begins in 1963. Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) is a student at Cambridge working toward deciding what his life’s study will be. Already an acknowledged genius he takes on time as a subject for his doctorate. As he sets out to prove, with a single equation, that time had a beginning two things happen that change his life forever. He meets Jane (Felicity Jones), a pretty PhD student who would become his wife, mother of his three children and life support system after he is diagnosed with a motor neuron disease related to ALS. “I love you,” she blurts out when she learns he has only been given two years to live. “That’s a false conclusion,” he replies, scientifically.
Doctors dramatically underestimated his life expectancy, but were correct in their diagnosis. His body deteriorates until he is confined to a wheelchair and cannot speak, but his thoughts remain as vital as ever. As he developed theories like cosmological inflation Jane was his lifeline, and would remain so until just before the release of his besting book “A Brief History of Time.”
“The Theory of Everything” is not just the story of a great man but also the story of the great woman behind the man. As Jane, Jones portrays the strength, wisdom and occasional frustration it took to be Hawking’s partner. It’s a nicely rendered performance but, in art as in life, it’s Hawking who gets all the notice. Or should I say Redmayne as Hawking who steals the movie.
The actor bears an uncanny resemblance to the physicist but doesn’t just hand in an impersonation. It’s a fully rounded performance that captures the indomitable spirit that has allowed Hawking to survive and thrive, showcasing the man’s intelligence and humor—while courting Jane he tries to work out mathematical probability of happiness. Redmayne, whose charming work in “My Week with Marilyn” was over shone by a show stopping performance by Michelle Williams, takes control of the movie from the first frames and doesn’t let go, even in the latter half when he has no voice and speaks through a computer.
In many ways “The Theory of Everything” is a standard biopic—there’s loads of shots of Hawking furiously scribbling mathematical symbols on a chalkboard for instance—but Jones and Redmayne give this study of a scientific mind something special—heart.
Richard’s “Canada AM” interview with “The Theory of Everything” star Eddie Redmayne. They talk about shooting the film and Stephen Hawking’s reaction to seeing his life portrayed on screen. Watch the whole thing HERE!
From IMDB: The story of the physicist Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde, the literature student he fell in love with whilst studying at Cambridge in the 1960s.
Stephen Hawking is the world’s most famous physicist. Suffering from a motor neuron disease related to ALS, he is paralyzed and has been wheelchair bound for most of his life. Communicating through a speech-generating device he continues to share his ideas and write books like A Brief History of Time, which stayed on the British Sunday Times best-sellers list for a record-breaking 237 weeks.
His story is well known; lesser known is the story of his (now ex) wife Jane.
A film at TIFF aims to fix that. The Theory of Everything is not just the biography of a great man but also the story of the great woman behind the man. As Jane Hawking, Felicity Jones portrays the strength, wisdom and occasional frustration it took to be Hawking’s partner.
“As is often the case with very famous and rich people there is someone in the background doing all the very unglamorous work,” she says. “Jane is a fascinating woman in her own right. I met her and was very intimidated. She had a tremendous force of character and strength to do what she did. It is not easy being the carer in that situation, particularly for someone who is very famous. You can feel eclipsed, so for all of us it was about bringing Jane’s story to life.”
The movie, which is based by the memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen by Jane Hawking, is just as much about her as it is him. Jones, who was recently seen in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 and on TV in the HBO hit Girls, says she met with her real-life counterpart to soak up as much of her spirit as possible.
“There is so much richness in her life it would have been stupid of me not to have her as my resource,” says Jones, who plays Jane from a teenager well into her fifties. “It was about capturing her essence. The essence of this woman is somebody who is strong willed, who is persistent and was an academic in her own right. Incredibly intelligent. It is taking that and also bringing your instinct and inhabiting that person as much as possible.
“When I went to visit Jane we sat down to look at pictures. She had old slides of her and Stephen when they first met. Looking at those pictures and seeing the dynamic between them when they were on boating holidays was fascinating. Stephen at that point wasn’t able to move so Jane would be steering the boat. I wanted to absorb as much as possible from what she was showing me. When I met her I felt a little bit disingenuous because we’d be talking and I’d be observing things about her. Like I was a detective trying to find clues about her character.”
Jones says Jane is “very pleased with the film. She has been very supportive all the way through. You don’t want the person to watch it and say, ‘Well, that’s awful. That wasn’t right at all.’ You have to care for the people you’re playing and show that in your performance.”
An elegant period piece about Charles Dickens and his mistress, starring and directed by Ralph Fiennes, comes with great expectations, most of which, unfortunately are not met.
When “The Invisible Woman” begins Charles Dickens (Fiennes) is the Justin Bieber of his day. He’s fabulously famous and wealthy thanks to his best selling books and stage appearances.
Married with children, his life becomes a tale of two women when a seventeen-year-old actress named Nelly Ternan (Felicity Jones) is cast in one of his plays. Infatuated with the young woman the “David Copperfield” author begins a long-running, but secret affair with her that lasted until his death.
Younger viewers might wonder why Lord Voldemort is traipsing around London in a top hat and spats but the range of his performance will strike older viewers, familiar with Fiennes’s brooding work. His physical resemblance to the writer is remarkable, but it is the arc of the character, from charismatic celebrity to love sick puppy to Victorian rascal that really impresses.
Ditto the work of Joanna Scanlan as the long-suffering Catherine Dickens. She’s the mother of Dickens’s children, and a good and loyal person who becomes one of the invisible women in the author’s life as he falls deeper in love with Nelly. She hands in a wonderfully sympathetic performance rich with pathos and sadness.
Too bad these two stand-out performances are wrapped around a terribly dull film. With none of the crackle of Fiennes’s last directorial work “Coriolanus,” it’s a wealth of period details and sure handed direction but it plays like a tedious episode of “Masterpiece Theatre” broadcast by the BBC, which in this case would stand for Boring British Channel.
The story of a life-changing love affair is presented almost completely without passion and bookended by a sidebar of Nellie as an adult, still pining for her lost lover. Or, as it is presented in the film, staring off into the distance. As a viewer you hope the Ghost of Dickens Past will appear to snap out of her endless funk.
Ultimately “The Invisible Woman” could have used a little more TMZ and a little less BBC.
“Canada AM”: Richard and host on the Golden Globes nominations 2015
