Affecting story

Rating: 7/10 (22 September 2016)

For many of us, Stephen Hawking is that old guy in the wheelchair, and has always been that old guy in a wheelchair, but it turns out he was once a young guy on a bicycle who fell in love and got married. And he's British, which one never realizes from his computer voice.
Theory of Everything shows Hawking's brutal physical deterioration in the context of his marriage. Eddie Redmayne is impressive in expressing that deterioration while still showing the man trapped in an increasingly uncooperative body. Eventually he has little to work with as an actor besides his eyes and lips, but he does a lot with those.
It's the sort of performance that always wins Oscars (Hollywood loves a good disability acting job) but honestly I was more impressed by Felicity Jones, who expressed a steely, quiet determination and, as the movie progressed, increasing frustration. Often she isn't given much more to work with than Redmayne, being asked to tell the story with her eyes, and she does so marvelously. Even though the movie is ostensibly about Hawking, it feels like it's at least as much her story as his (not surprising, since much of it is based on her book).
While the story is often touching and absorbing, the writers ultimately couldn't figure out how to end it. The movie has two scenes that feel like endings, one at a Q&A and the actual ending, but both feel like they're struggling to create a profound moment out of fairly ordinary moments. For me the lackluster ending lessens the overall impact of the movie; a good ending would have made this an 8 instead of a 7.
After watching the movie I read an interesting article on Slate on how accurate this was. Overall reasonably accurate, although it sounds like the real Hawkings was a bit more of a pain than the fluffy fictional one.