Nice balance of all connected issues

Rating: 7/10 (23 November 2014)

The movie starts as the Cambridge student Stephen Hawking meets Jane, and although shy at first, eventually they both get close. Stephen soon learns about his illness and decides to shut Jane off from his life. But Jane insisted on him and stated her for him even though knowing the illness will progress and slowly take Stephen away from her. They get married soon after, and Stephen soon graduates his doctoral study, having more interest to cosmological physics. Jane stands by Stephen as the illness progresses, impairing his locomotion, balance, speech and even swallowing. They have two children and Stephen's work starts to gain spotlight. But little by little, Jane starts to loose her spirit, though she doesn't reveal it.
Jane's mother advises her to join the church choir to help her fill her spare time so she goes. There she meets the choir's tutor Jonathan. Jonathan gets close to Jane and her family, even with Stephen. He goes as far as being a helping hand for Stephen when the family goes on an outdoors trip. Jane ultimately starts to feel attracted to Jonathan. But Jonathan backs away when friends and families start to whisper. As Jane goes with Jonathan, Stephen goes to watch an opera. But Stephen has an episode and goes into a comma, and the doctors hesitate in doing a tracheotomy on him due to his muscles have already undergone atrophy which means that it will disable Stephen's ability to speak. Jane insists on tracheotomy, but the family then have to struggle in communicating with Stephen.
Jane hired a help, Elaine, who quickly suits Stephen's needs while Jane slowly slips away from him. Stephen then gets the robotic speech aid program which helps him a lot. But then Jane reaches her threshold and she and Stephen gets a divorce. Jane goes on to marry Jonathan. But Stephen calls for Jane, as the first spouse, to accompany him in receiving a title from the Queen.
The movie proves to be a great treat for me for several reasons. First, it's timing of nearing Interstellar (2014) nicely complements each other especially on the theoretical physics field. Also, the story strikes a nice balance between the focus between Stephen and Jane, as well as addressing the assortment of connected issues such as religion, family, and also persistence and not giving up.
The movie also has nice touches on the technical sides. The coloration choice is a way in making the story setting stand out. The camera angles, particularly on the early Cambridge time, are also great, utilizing nice through-the-window angles. The slight blurring and edging incorporated more significantly in key emotional scenes are also a great way to emphasize the story.
The acting side is a very nice overall work for me. I agree with those who say that Eddie Redmayne should have at least an Oscar nomination. His acting here doesn't only involve slimming done his body to the proper weight for his character, but surely he must also endure cramps in doing the muscle-atrophy impersonation. Felicity Jones did quite okay, although she didn't really get much of variation in expressions.
All in all, for me The Theory of Everything (2014) is worthy of a 7 out of 10 score. Again, it's great timing of release in connection with Interstellar (2014) sure does help in building a positive feeling in watching early on. But the later on drama build also doesn't disappoint.