A very moving biopic, with two outstanding performances...

Rating: 9/10 (9 February 2015)

The greatest difficulty in making a film about someone with a disability is ensuring that you don't let the disability take over the film. It's so easy for a movie to say "oh dear, look at how much of a struggle having this disability is" without having any other grounding or message, and a lack of fully developed characters. I was extremely surprised, therefore to see exactly how "The Theory of Everything" deals with Professor Stephen Hawking's motor neurone disease. Inevitably, it portrays his continual physical decline and how he deals with it, but this isn't the point of the film. The film's focus is a relationship between a man and a woman in love, and how they go through struggles together. It's very moving, mostly thanks to two outstanding performances from its leads.
"The Theory of Everything" follows the life of Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) from his Cambridge days to the publication of his world-famous book "A Brief History of Time". It doesn't waste any time at the start, introducing in the very first scene the beginning of Stephen and Lucy's (Felicity Jones) relationship – this is to become our primary focus for the next two hours. Sure, its introductory shot is of Stephen riding a bike, which slightly feels like a "he won't be able to do that soon" kind of shot, but it doesn't dwell too much. We are shown just how intelligent Hawking is, and the great romance that lies between him and Lucy, but then the crushing blow comes – he is diagnosed with the disease that he will be identified with for the rest of his life.
Where this film succeeds most is showing the effects of the disability on Stephen and his work and his relationship. Enter Jonathan Jones, whom Lucy meets at her church and who starts to look after the family despite him and Lucy having feelings for each other. You can see clearly how their relationship is often strained, how they make life difficult for each other at times, and the two actors work together so well on this. So much has been and will be said about Redmayne's exquisite portrayal of Hawking, picking up every physical and vocal nuance that he has (although I'm sure that, had this not been en pointe, no film would have been made), but it is the relationship and chemistry that is the real highlight of the film. Felicity Jones is just incredible as Lucy, showing both emotional pain and extreme resilience throughout, and it's thanks to her that the film can be so heartbreaking at times.
My slight issue with the film came from the amount that it attempts to cram into 2 hours, something which is extremely understandable given the subject matter. We cover the space of 25 years in that time, and sometimes we're flying and other times crawling through those years. There is a period where his physics career seems to be put aside entirely, and it's a slight shame that we do lose that focus, but I suppose it allows us to get the "snapshots of a relationship" feel that it's going for.
If anything, the film makes you marvel at the courage and determination of its two main characters, one of whom defies all odds put against him, and the other who makes it her duty to stand by him every step of the way. The film is, very simply, charming, and is a masterclass in portraying a difficult relationship even more than in portraying a challenging physical illness.