A Brief History Of Stephen & Jane Hawking

Rating: 9/10 (18 February 2015)

There's an image that we have of Stephen Hawking: basically, a brilliant man trapped in a useless body. To know all that he's accomplished given the obvious challenges and limitations that he faces is in itself inspiring. And, clearly, in spite of it all, he has a sense of humour. This may seem silly, but one thing that I truly admire about him is that he sometimes appears on "The Big Bang Theory" - surely one of the silliest (and, yes, best) shows on television. But there's a lot about Stephen Hawking that I didn't know. I, like many I've talked to, thought his disability had been from birth. I honestly never realized that he had married and had children. I found that "The Theory Of Everything" put a very human face to this man who seems, somehow, different than the rest of us - more limited in some ways, far superior in other ways. As a brief history of the life of the author of "A Brief History Of Time," this movie worked very well.
Not just brilliant, Hawking is a very complex man, with a very complicated personal history. The movie begins with him falling in love, and more or less ends with the end of his (first) marriage. The relationship between Stephen and Jane starts as a truly simple romance of two people who just find each other. It becomes a true love story as Stephen begins to decline physically and is diagnosed with ALS and given two years to live. It then becomes a story of devotion as Jane cares for him and encourages him in his work. There's then the sad and tragic end as the love Stephen and Jane have for each other isn't enough to keep them together. It is, in fact, a brief but well done account of Hawking's life and of Jane and Stephen's relationship.
The lead performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones as Stephen and Jane are superb. Redmayne especially seemed to capture Stephen Hawking, which must have been a difficult acting job, trying to capture the reality of Hawkings' physical decline.
The only real weakness I saw in this was that it jumped into the love story too quickly. I thought we could have been offered a bit more of a glimpse of Hawking's early life, which might have made for a fuller character study. But what we do see here is fascinating. The movie is both sad and inspiring, and sometimes both at the same time - which is a rather difficult balance to achieve. "The Theory Of Everything" pulls that off well. (9/10)