More things in heaven and earth...

Rating: 8/10 (30 January 2015)

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Hamlet's words tell of a world that will be beyond Horatio's understanding and implicitly also ours. That is the world of Stephen Hawking. There is a moment in "The Theory of Everything" when Hawking's wife Jane attempts to explain her husband's theories by using vegetables on the dinner table as props. She does rather well. But for most of us "A Brief History of Time" , and the rest of Hawking's work, will be almost completely incomprehensible. This movie is not, however, about his science or about his astonishing academic achievements or his genius. We rather take those for granted. In a way it is about something that is bigger than these things – the human spirit, courage, love, redemption
When in 1964, at the age of 22, Hawking was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and given two years to live the prospects for him to make a lasting contribution in his academic field of study seemed remote. There would not be enough time. But for Hawking time does not always flow forward and he also manufactures it, not least in his own life. If you know that your own time is unnaturally limited then each day you are given becomes the more valuable. This is not just in respect of your work (academic study in Hawking's case) but in your personal and emotional life. And it is the latter which is the main theme of this astonishing film.
Around the same time that Hawking's illness emerged he met Jane Wilde, a clever, pretty and engaging young history student at Cambridge. Their loving relationship and marriage is at the heart of "The Theory of Everything". They quite quickly had two children (a third was to follow later) and overcame difficulties that would have defeated most of us. For Hawking coping with his illness whilst continuing to produce leading-edge academic work became a courageous and determined obsession. For Jane there was never any doubt that she would commit herself to the extraordinarily difficult task of supporting her husband. This lasted more than twenty years before the combined stresses of his fame and the entrance of others into both their lives led to their parting. This story is told with great sensitivity and without sentimentality – and it is absolutely believable.
The movie is a modern biopic in that it is as scrupulously authentic as the confines of a two hour movie covering more than fifty years of time allow it to be. It may be a brief and selective history of that time but it is faithful to its source material, Jane Hawking's book telling her story. The authenticity is enhanced by the quite brilliant performances of the two leads – both Oscar nominated. Eddie Redmayne's Hawking is an astonishing impersonation and it seems to capture everything of the man himself with unerring accuracy. He looks the part and conveys the energy, the drive and the humanity of the man, as well as the intellect, in such a way that he actually becomes him. Felicity Jones as Jane is no less remarkable. Here there is no need to try and do an accurate impression but an overriding need to convey her love and commitment, whilst not subsuming her character and personality to that of her extraordinary husband. For example as Hawking wrestles, quite mischievously I thought, with the implications of his evolving theories on the concept of God, she retains her faith and her solid Anglicanism. At no point is this a source of conflict between them.
Like Horatio our own philosophy may not be able even to dream the things in heaven and earth that Stephen Hawking is able to cope with almost diffidently. But we can engage with the human story because it has references that we will all relate to. Love, loyalty, ambition, temptation, frustration among them – as well as the more mundane need to navigate safely through the journey of time past, present and future. At the end of the film the story is briefly replayed in reverse. We move back from Time Present to that moment in Time Past when Stephen and Jane first met. It seemed to say that the possibility of time travel may be something that science hasn't quite delivered yet. But in our minds and our memories we do make these journeys. And though physically we might struggle, though few as malignantly as Stephen Hawking has had to, if our minds remain alert we can still live profoundly satisfying lives full of achievement.