Rated PG-13
122 minutes
Directed by James Marsh
The Theory of Everything is a light movie, a good movie. It isn't great by a long shot, but merely a good crowd-pleaser which is elevated by two great performances. The two performances I talk about are Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. Redmayne shifts and slurs with such nuance, never feeling like a caricature or overblown. The way he manipulates his speech and his body points to Redmayne traveling down the road to becoming a great actor. Jones, on the other hand, is a rock, standing by her husband despite having second thoughts about her marriage. She portrays this moral dilemma beautifully, and it works greatly.
Performances aren't enough, however, to cover up some fundamental problems with the film. I didn't think the script was especially that great. If you're going to create a biopic about Hawking's life, I would try to balance the science a bit more with his personal struggles, rather than having a clear tilt to his personal life. Hawking's scientific achievements aren't really present outside of the first half-hour or so, which is troubling since his science is so groundbreaking. Additionally, and this isn't really a criticism as much as it is a disappointment, but I thought that the cinematography was going to stay as muted as it was in that first scene. That cinematography had a really nice contrast of color, and it was way better than what followed.
There was one scene that demonstrated what this movie could've been. It's close to the end of the film, so I won't give spoilers, but the scene ends with Jones saying "I did my best." That scene was a masterclass in manipulation of emotions. It invested you so deeply into these characters, so much so that it felt out of place with the rest of the film. That scene was handled so well that it showed, in contrast, just how average the rest of the movie was. By including that scene, it shows that smart film-makers were involved, but they just didn't do the rest of the movie justice. It's still a good movie, just not the great one it had the potential to be.
3/5
C+
There was one scene that demonstrated what this movie could've been. It's close to the end of the film, so I won't give spoilers, but the scene ends with Jones saying "I did my best." That scene was a masterclass in manipulation of emotions. It invested you so deeply into these characters, so much so that it felt out of place with the rest of the film. That scene was handled so well that it showed, in contrast, just how average the rest of the movie was. By including that scene, it shows that smart film-makers were involved, but they just didn't do the rest of the movie justice. It's still a good movie, just not the great one it had the potential to be.
3/5
C+
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