An ordinary biopic of an extraordinary life

Rating: 7/10 (23 April 2020)

The story of Stephen Hawking, a man who overcome extraordinary physical disadvantages to become both a preeminent scientist and a best-selling author of popular science books is remarkable; but it's a difficult one to capture in a dramatic film. In that sense, 'The Theory of Everything' merely recounts what you might already have known about Hawking and has the same inherent weaknesses as most biopics. A strength is the very convincing portrait of Hawking's deteriorating physical condition; I wouldn't exactly call it a tour-de-force of acting per se (given Hawking's decreasing ability to directly convey his own emotional state), but the overall depiction is very good. Perhaps because his professional work was so complex, the film concentrates mostly on his emotional life, and that of his wife, Jane. Her story is told as one of quietly plucky Englishness; in places, one feels the film might have shied away from truly telling things how they were. Overall, it's nicely done, but unlikely to be revelatory for anyone already familiar with the material.