The Theory Of Everything
(PG) ****
Director: James Marsh.
Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Harry Lloyd, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis, Maxine Peake, Emily Watson.
THERE have been a few big biopics released in recent weeks, possibly to capitalise on the upcoming awards season and the fact these "based on a true story" stories tend to attract the trophies.
But there are inherent dangers in these type of films.
Unbroken - the tale of Olympian-turned-soldier Louie Zamperini's survival in POW camps - focused too much on the real life events and not enough on the characters involved. The Imitation Game - an examination of genius Alan Turing's war efforts and later persecution for homosexuality - had its real life facts warped into a few too many Hollywood clichés in order to generate the requisite amount of dramatic tension.
The Theory Of Everything suffers from neither of these problems as it details the life of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking and his relationship with his first wife Jane Wilde Hawking, but it does encounter another kind of issue that can affect biopics - the gradual slow-down and the difficulty in finding an ending.
Having said all this, all three films are compelling in their own way, with The Theory Of Everything probably the pick of the bunch.
Rarely flashy or exaggerated, the movie is character-driven and quiet and, as a result, feels authentic and a natural.
Central to this is Redmayne's astounding transformation as Hawking, which is so immersive you feel like you're watching the real Hawking.
Redmayne's performance is about much more than slumping in a chair and looking like the legendary scientist. At the start of the film, he portrays Hawking as charming, confident and funny - traits which shine through even as his motor neurone disease progresses and Hawking is left as little more than a brain trapped in a shell of a body, such is the clever subtlety of Redmayne's work.
Equally brilliant yet less attention-grabbing is Jones as Jane Wilde Hawking, the woman who somehow managed to care for Hawking and their three children almost singlehandedly for over 20 years.
Jones' performance is just as impressive as Redmayne's, with its beneath-the-surface strain and the steely determination Jones quietly demonstrates and both turns are equally important as the script gradually shifts its focus between the pair.
Although based on Wilde Hawking's biography, at the start of the film it's very much Stephen Hawking's story as we learn of his brilliance and his diagnosis, before the focus gradually shifts to his wife without the audience realising, as she deals with Hawking's gradual physical decline and her resulting daily struggles.
The performances, a solid supporting cast, and a quiet story that packs a profound emotional punch add to the naturalism of the piece.
While the whole thing slows to a crawl and begins to feel a little long as it searches for an appropriate note to end on, it's a strong and honest story that doesn't shy away from the hard topics yet never begs for you to feel sorry for its characters.
It merely tells it like it is, and isn't that what we really want in a "based on a true story" story?
