This is a really nice movie

Rating: 7/10 (8 April 2017)

When I first saw this movie, I couldn't watch it all the way through. It seemed boring, set in Cambridge in the 1960s, and the script and backdrops seemed quite monotonous. But on second viewing, I found it generally an entertaining film. It's the story of brilliant scientist Stephen Hawking's diagnosis with motor neurone diseas in his early 20s - and his subsequent persistence in getting on with life, and becoming a world famous celebrity physicist. The scientific aspects, to me, are still very weak. I.e. I feel they could have been explained in more detail, although still in a simple way, so we got some information about Hawking's work. However the acting, including Eddie Redmayne as Hawking, and Felicity Jones as his wife, Jane, is exemplary. Redmayne displays an extraordinary technical mastery and empathy with Hawking's disability, and Jones inhabits her role beautifully. Jane seems to have saved Hawking's life, several times, not least in how she convinced him, and enabled him, to not just exist, but to participate in life. I feel that their breakup was probably sanitised somewhat. Not much bitterness or sadness is portrayed, just a few tears, then getting on with life with new partners. The actor who played Jane's choirmaster love interest was great, and the relationship is portrayed in a tasteful way. I felt that this movie did justice to an extraordinary true story. It was well done.