The Spectacular Story of a Spectacular Man

Rating: 8/10 (11 May 2020)

The story of Stephen Hawking is truly remarkable. Overcoming such adversity to continue to be one of the finest scientific minds on earth is extraordinary. The main focus of the film is Stephen's relationship with his wife Jane, which is beautifully and tragically depicted. As much a story of humanity and life as it is science, The Theory of Everything is poignant and heart warming.
My first thought after finishing this film was... God what a performance from Felicity Jones. Redmayne was great, a superb physical performance but the emotion and power from Jones was just something else. Spectacular. The love, admiration and care that she showed Redmayne in the film was marvellous. It was such a raw performance and really got to me. She was captivating throughout and really stole the show for me. As mentioned Redmayne was also superb, managing to bring so much to the performance.
The story is very well presented, covering the beginning of Stephen and Jane's relationship, through to Stephen's illness and the subsequent adaption to their new lives. It's very well paced and covers a lot of their lives in the space of the film. Inspiring and impactful in equal measure, The Theory of Everything will stay with you for a while.
One criticism of the film is the colouration. It seemed to be filmed with alternately a sepia or blueish tint, the reason for which I'm not quite sure. It certainly didn't add anything for me and was a bit off putting at times. Other than that the artistic choices were great, with solid direction and a magical soundtrack.
Definitely a must watch film and worth watching for Felicity Jones's performance alone.