A good movie, but spoiled by some glaring omissions.

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2016)

The film is a biopic of Steven Hawking and concentrates on his personal relationships from his undergraduate days, right up to the present day, although this passage of time is never made entirely clear.
I have an inbuilt aversion to biopics, so it will take a very good one to get me going and hold my attention. But at least I can be thankful as I was spared the usual nonsense of actors ageing before my eyes by the clever application of make-up, prosthetics, different hair styles, older clothing and so on. For me that never works - the aged characters just look like young characters in heavy make-up.
We watch as the admirable Eddie Redmayne, who plays Hawking, slowly becomes physically afflicted by the crippling motor neurone disease, without visibly ageing. His wife, Felicity Jones, also barely ages at all, and I suppose we should be thankful for that.
It really is an astonishing performance by Redmayne and his co-star, Jones is not only very pleasing to the eye, but is also very believable as his loving and long-suffering wife. The leading pair really do act their hearts out. The film garnered a large number of award nominations, and Redmayne scooped up a host of gongs for best actor, including the coveted Oscar.
There is a lot of emotion in The Theory of Everything and there were even moments in the movie that I admit brought tears to my eyes. For the most part, I remained immersed in this utterly touching love story.
It is the story of one the world's greatest geniuses being struck down in his teenage years by a fatal disease – which would usually have meant a life expectancy of two years - and of his gallant wife, who insists on marrying him, and is determined to stick by him, no matter what.
We see how Hawking is undeterred by his terrible disease and becomes a world famous genius and celebrity, and how in the end, it becomes too much for his wife, who is eventually 'replaced' by one of his adoring carers.
It is a good movie and it taught me a few things about the great man that I had not previously known, and it also told me a great deal about the struggles in his personal life.
Yet, I wasn't 100% sold on this admittedly superior biopic. When all's said and done, it is a biopic, and as with any biopic it is difficult for a film in this genre to rise to movie greatness.
If it had been made for the History Channel, it would quite possibly been a better film, as certain aspects of the story wouldn't have been compromised for dramatic effect. As a piece of entertainment the film, which celebrates Hawking's genius and triumph over impossible odds, is a success. As a biopic, telling us the life story of an extraordinary man, it is deeply flawed.
For starters, there was an unanswered question that stuck with me throughout the movie. Why is Hawking still alive in his 70's when most sufferers of this disease die within two years after the onset of the illness? The question was never asked or discussed in any way, yet I imagine in the real life, everyone would be asking such a question. How is it that he continues to live? How many more years can he survive?
After much Google research, I eventually found an explanation – but I shouldn't have had to do all that I'm quite sure that I'm not the only one who was puzzled by this glaring omission.
Even more annoying were the parts of his life story that were deliberately omitted and which I wasn't aware of until I read Hawking's Wikipedia page.
There is a lot of detail in Wikipedia that is not included in the movie, including the need for a team of nurses to provide round the clock care to Hawking from a very young age. We didn't see so much as a single nurse in the entire movie – except when he was in hospital. We were left very much with the impression that his wife provided all the care, single-handed, although quite how she did it, with her need to bring up 3 children and study for a degree was never explained.
Even worse was the omission of Hawking's relationship with one of his carers which turned so sour that there is a strong suspicion that he was abused. This eventually resulted in police intervention and for a few years, he became seriously estranged from his ex-wife and children.
There is much more in his private life that is not mentioned and although the film deals sensitively with the breakdown of Hawking's first marriage, all the nasty, unpleasant stuff is well and truly swept under the carpet. The truth is well and truly sanitised. If it is supposed to be a biopic – then it does us a disservice.
So as long as movie-goers understand that the movie is 'roughly based' on 'parts' of the life of Hawking, then go watch it and enjoy it. For me, it's a shame that such a good opportunity to tell the world about the real Stephen Hawking - warts an' all - has been wasted.