The Theory of Everything

‘It’s called motor neuron disease’, a doctor explains to Stephen Hawking, ‘Life expectancy is two years. The brain isn’t affected. Thoughts won’t change it’s just no one will know what they are.’ Few of us are unaware of the tragically ironic experience of Professor Stephen Hawking – one of the world’s greatest minds, muzzled by one of the world’s most devastating diseases. But James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything is a unique, touching and tactful take on a well-known story.

Inspired by the memoir Traveling to Infinity: My life with Stephen, by Jane Hawking, the movie deals with the pair’s relationship as the onset of motor neuron disease threatens to ravage their peaceful family life. Starring Eddie Redmayne (My Week With Marilyn, Les Miserables) as Hawking and Felicity Jones (Breathe In, Like Crazy) as Jane, the love story between the two is always to the fore. It is Redmayne’s performance, however, that has been the main focus of the critics with Oscar buzz already arising about his realistic portrayel of both a complex man and a complex disease. The actor reportedly spent over six months researching every archival footage of Hawking and for director James Marsh, this has been the most testing performance of his career. ‘It’s not just doing disability’, says Marsh, ‘It’s actually charting the course of an illness that erodes the body, and the mind has to project out from that erosion’. Nevertheless Jones shines in the stalwart, ever supportive Jane, who tirelessly spends her hours looking after their three children and Stephen himself.

Perhaps a film of this subject might easily stray into cliché and overly emotive tonality, yet Anthony McCarten’s script is restrained and tactful. After the film’s premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, it was said that when the lights came up, a nurse had wiped a tear from Hawking’s cheek.

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