Totally cliché, though also totally inoffensive

Rating: 6/10 (16 November 2014)

A biopic of Stephen Hawking, mostly focused on his relationship with his first wife, Jane (the film is based on her own autobiography). It has little interest in what Stephen Hawking is about, except for very cursorily. I guess that's not a huge problem, but, frankly, I don't know that much about Hawking and wished I had gotten to learn more from this movie. It does deal a lot with his disease and health struggles, which I suppose many are more interested in. The film will surely be most notable for its two lead performances. Eddie Redmayne certainly nails the physical side of Hawking and projects a very clear character. Felicity Jones, though, does better work as the woman who has to work very hard to make their lives work. No one else really registers much (though David Thewlis and Emma Watson, among many others, are featured), but that doesn't really matter. The filmmaking is competent but not notable. James Marsh, best known for his documentaries Man on Wire and Project Nim, has done good work in feature filmmaking before with the underrated The King. Here he doesn't get much to register. My favorite thing besides the lead performances was the very pleasant score, by Johan Johansson. Probably worth seeing on video, but don't go out of your way.