“Smart, funny and truly charming”.
SPOILER FREE It’s about this time of year where are the films come out to impress us and have a huge impact in today’s culture as well as taking lots of awards at the Oscar’s and BAFTA’s. The Theory of Everything, I would believe, takes a look into the life of Stephen Hawking from a biased approach based on the book written by his first wife – tragic but beautiful. It’s strongly written and believable like not much else – I was constantly thinking throughout the film that Eddie Redmayne isn’t playing Stephen Hawking – he is Stephen Hawking! He really throws himself into this role like nothing I’ve ever seen him do before, wonderfully acted and the chemistry between he and his wife is riveting and powerful. One of the mistakes a lot of romantic comedies make, is the character’s not being likeable or interesting – how many times have we seen the same romantic chemistry that doesn’t really work; time and time again. What I loved about The Theory of Everything was how both the characters worked so well. The feeling you get when the two are in each others company is nothing but a longing for the chemistry to continue.
Through great tragedy and incredibly upsetting events, the film still finds its ways of being positive and uplifting – a lot of the ways that characters related to each other took me back to Danny Boyle’s masterpiece: ‘Slumdog Millionaire’. Through tragedy comes something that we can look up to and smile at. By no means does it lessen the effect of the terrible events that take place, but it gives the audience something to hold on to. A film has to do well to juggle tough subject matter, but still have its audience coming out feel uplifted, not depressed. The film felt educational as well as entertaining, offering advice to us on how to deal with tragedy and tough situations – not to turn away from them but to tackle them head-on. It’s remarkable that throughout the difficult circumstances that Stephen and his wife Jane still contain their sense of humour – in fact Stephen seems to make more jokes the worse his condition gets.
All in all, it’s rather stunning work. Eddie Redmayne owns the role like no other before him – to see him in interviews and walking around seemed such a shock, just because his performance was so believable. Felicity Jones is also wonderful and interacts with Eddie beautifully. The acting is all-round excellent and everyone seems to have his or her place without being overbearing. It’s wonderfully shot, and for something that tackles very difficult subject matter, you come out feeling positive and uplifted. Stephen may have no faith in God, but I have faith in this film.
★★★★
Hudson-Cook 