Love story doomed by personality clashes

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2015)

What one must be aware of before stumbling into the cinema was the genre of this film; with all the publicity surrounding the scientist Stephen Hawking and this movie based on the book written by his ex-wife Jane it should be pretty obvious that this was a love story, yet there were still grumbles from moviegoers expecting to see a motion picture version of "A Brief History of Time" and were thus disappointed. This was a moving tale of love and perseverance and was nevertheless saddening as the relationship was doomed from the start. Not from the disease crippling Stephen, but from the clash of personalities. It was crystal clear that these two were as different as "black and white" (pointedly stated by Stephen's sister at Jane's first visit). He came from a family with professional and scientific training and rationality and logic flow in their veins. She was a devout believer and flourished in the domain of the Arts - Tennyson, Blake and medieval Spanish poetry. They might have been attracted to each other as opposites at first, but this was likely going to have dwindled with further courtship - that did not occur as they were forced to gamble with Stephen's "numbered days". And there lay the real tragedy. With Jane's sense of responsibility, her commitment, her integrity, her docility and her love for Stephen, she had made this marriage work much longer than it would have if Stephen had been able-bodied. He, of course, being the domineering partner, had often used this to his advantage. Human nature being what it is, one could not blame Stephen. Even when with his intelligence and cynicism, he would have foreseen Jane's predicament when they accepted a stranger and his help into their family. Yet Stephen "did not object"; I tend to be kind and do not think Stephen tried to manipulate Jane with her "predictable affair", instead it was perhaps Stephen's way of finding someone to take care of the family with his decline and his impending demise. Accolade must be given to the actor playing Stephen, his accurate depiction of the disease progression and his stunningly realistic portrayal of the muscle twitches and the loss of voluntary control reflected hours of studying anatomy, kinetics and choreography with endless practice. This was performance worthy of an Oscar. I quite enjoyed the movie despite feeling wistful afterwards.