Life of a scientific celebrity

Rating: 7/10 (27 March 2015)

The year 2014 has brought us two popular movies dedicated to the lives of prominent scientists - 'The Imitation Game' about Alan Turing and 'The Theory of Everything' about Stephen Hawking. While the impression is still fresh, there's a big temptation to compare them both to each other and look for similarities. Yet, honestly, i could hardly name two seemingly similar films that are as distinct as these two.
As i wrote in a separate review for 'The Imitation Game', it generally follows the steps of 'A Beautiful Mind', in a way that the hero is doomed to struggle, and no achievements or scientific success have a chance to bring him peace or happiness. The whole life of Alan Turing is shown as a fight with everything that's around him: bullying fellow students, impatient and short-sighted bosses, hypocritical society etc.
On the other hand, in 'The Theory of Everything' we are given a completely opposite picture. The main character, who looks like a hipster male model, receives nothing but praise and love from everyone around him: hot girls swoon at first sight of him, colleagues and mentors only worship him for his bold endeavors with no sign of envy or disgruntlement whatsoever, the society is ecstatic whenever he makes a public appearance, random guys lend a helping hand acting like a non-staff nurse just simply because being near Hawking gives purpose to their lives. Even the queen of England wants to see him.
All this is rather cloying. The movie portrays Stephen Hawking as some sort of a superhero prodigy who's the first at everything and is never wrong. It completely obscures the truth of his life, like that several of his bold theories were outright wrong, which he was annoyed to admit, and that his main scientific achievement - the Hawking radiation - still haven't been proved to exist, while the Higgs Boson, the subatomic particle whose existence he denied, was actually found.
Just as real-life Stephen Hawking, the movie image of him suffers from the celebrity status. In the movie, his father tells him that he is world-famous. "For black holes, not for rock concerts", Stephen replies. But still the film makes a rock star out of him, focusing only on the strong sides of his life and completely striking out the rest.
The filmmakers might have thought that Hawking's disability is enough of a downside to go with it alone. Indeed, Eddie Redmayne's performance of a man gradually losing control over his own body was brilliant, and there is no doubt that he deserved the Oscar he received for this role. But at the same time i can't help thinking that the way 'The Theory of Everything' portrays the life of a person with ALS is oversweetened and even cynical. There's no doubt about Stephen Hawking's suffering from it. However, he is constantly surrounded by people who view taking care of him as a source of joy rather than a burden, who literally "worship the ground beneath his wheels". I'm quite certain that a life of a regular person, neither wealthy nor famous, who suffers from the same illness is infinitely more gritty and dramatic.
While 'The Theory of Everything' is a decent and captivating movie, it ultimately fails to go beyond the already existing myth of Stephen Hawking and to show some less glorious sides of his life and personality. And it's just too bad, because, in an ever expanding Universe, a public image of its Master would definitely benefit from some expanding too.