The Theory of Everything contains masterful acting from both leads

Rating: 9/10 (15 December 2014)

The Theory of Everything (review)
Every week the Sierra Nevada Movie Club meets up to catch a flick. This week's offering was the James Marsh directed "The Theory of Everything" with Eddie Redmayne undertaking the role of Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones, the part of Hawking's first wife. I had been waiting for this film to reach Reno. The biggest little city in the world is growing, but can still be a little bodonk when it comes to receiving some of the smaller pictures (one member of the movie group decries every film that is short of a generic action film as being "bizarre".) I went into the theater already primed, having recently watching the excellent PBS documentary from earlier in the year simply entitled "Hawking". "The Theory of Everything" matches much of the arc of the documentary, both choosing what to highlight. Stephen Hawking, who apparently enjoyed "Theory" did describe the picture as "broadly true." The film begins shortly before Stephen show serious symptoms as he struggles with in which way he is going to finish his academic career. He meets Jane (Felicity Jones) at a party and immediately begins courting her in earnest. Not long into their relationship Stephen has a serious fall and is diagnosed with motor neuron disease that leaves him with a life expectancy of two years. What follows is a force of mega adaptation for both of them. In one scene between Jane and Frank Hawking, Stephen's father, she tells him that she may look like a weak girl but she will prove that she is strong. This she does in a herculean effort. Although Redmayne has garnered most of the buzz for his performance and physical transformation, Felicity Jones is the heart and pulse of this movie. We can see her love, her struggle, her determination, and finally her frustration and heart break. This is not done through dialog, but shown through minute visuals, the type of acting that motion picture was made to capture. Although the emotional arc of this movie largely follows a man and woman falling in love and then eventually losing touch with each other, I never felt overly dragged into these pangs myself. The points that were meant to be visceral daggers, I felt were just a tad bit forced, pushed, as typical in many films, by a manipulative score. It's not as much that these scenes didn't feel sincere as much as they just tended to not dig deep and the scenes fell away like dead leaves in a gentle breeze. This film is definitely worth a watch, if for nothing else than at least a snippet view into the life of an amazing, determined, humorous, brilliant man. I am very curious what projects come Eddie Redmayne's and Felicity Jones' way now that the world is even more aware of these actors and their ability. Again, I highly recommend looking into the PBS documentary that is narrated by Hawking himself to contrast with "Theory" which is adapted from Jane's Hawking's biography.
Blarv Score 8.6/10