Thoughts on: Theory of Everything


The Theory of Everything was released at the same time as The Imitation Game, and a cursory glance would make them look very similar – they’re both basically biographies of genius scientists, right? This assumption somewhat dampened my experience of The Theory of Everything, because it’s very much focused on being a love story, based on a book written by Hawking’s first wife. It does what it aims to do very well, but don’t watch it expecting the same sort of drama or themes as The Imitation Game.

One thing that cannot go unmentioned is the acting, specifically Eddie Redmayne playing Hawking. The number of times I found myself thinking “Wait, this guy isn't actually disabled is he? He’s just pretending right?” was incredible. Watching him trying to pull his body up a flight of stairs with fingers that don’t work… It’s incredibly powerful stuff and there’s no doubt he deserves his Oscar nomination.

As much as the movie succeeds in portraying Hawking’s relationship with his wife and his struggle with Motor Neuron Disease, one downfall that seems somewhat inexcusable is its lack of insight into Hawking’s mind. Even without talking much, Redmayne pulls off incredible emotive facial expressions, and yet many times throughout the movie it just seemed like the filmmakers weren't interested in what Hawking thought about certain situations. We’re left with plenty of shots of his wife's expression, but none of Hawking’s. It baffles me why they made this decision, but aside from that complaint it’s certainly a good movie.

7/10

PS. I didn't have strong enough opinions about The Imitation Game to give it its own blog post, so I’ll simply say here that I give it 8/10.


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