The Theory of Everything - Magnificent Acting and Intriguing Story - But Oh, that monotonous score

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2014)

Herb Blank Head, Business Development and Managing Director, ESG Solutions Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones are nothing short of remarkable in the Theory of Everything. The supporting cast, cinematographic innovations, and costuming were all excellent. I learned a lot and recommend it fairly highly.
However, the tedious piano score, relentless throughout, really started alternatively putting me to sleep and getting on my nerves. I know many of today's young filmmakers and critics have a disdain for overly dramatic scores. I don't personally but either way - this was truly the other extreme!
The only other nit I'll pick I recognize as representative of the fact that I am from a prior generation. I found the dialog overly spartan and a lot of story blanks deliberately unexplained. To me and I daresay others from my generation, this creates distance and makes personal emotional involvement difficult. That said, I am aware enough of both the subject matter and today's artistic and industry standards to believe that was exactly what James Marsh had in mind.
I've often heard today's highly regarded filmmakers and "experts" express disdain for verbal storytelling insisting that really talented directors should emphasize imagery and the visuality of the medium over story exposition. For those people in the reviews I've read, the DIrector didn't go far enough in that direction so I should be grateful - and I am. There also is a marvelous scene where Jane tells her mother (who inadvertently starts the new Chapter in Jane's life with the choirmaster) that "She's never heard anything so English in her life." So indeed, the lack of outward emotion expressed on film and the economic and sterile dialog is quite illustrative of a very English family background and Cambridge-educated gentry. It also is consistent with the recurrent subtext of the film contrasting Jane's C-of-E morality and natural proclivity toward adherence to standards of decorum with Hawking's personal immaturity (dictated by circumstances), unconventionality and unrepentant atheism. So the understatement is quite appropriate especially from Jane's lens which is how we get to view most of what unfolds. In short, I have to recognize that James Marsh did a superb job of conveying in cinema the subtext of the film.
So, I conclude that most of IMDb will appreciate what I found detracted just a bit from my personal enjoyment. But that's quite trivial overall. I enjoyed the movie and think most will as well.