'The Theory of Everything': Just a Matter of Time
 Popcorn Column
by Michael S. Goldberger
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Focus Features
Stephen and Jane Hawking (Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones) prove love is more than a theory. |
Director James Marsh's "The Theory of Everything," a touching and informative film about the work and romantic life of physicist Stephen Hawking, will have you wishing a cup of tea. A nice throwback to a time-honored genre, it is oh so properly British.
Detailing the famed theoretician's life both before and after he is struck with motor neuron disease, it's all quite stiff upper lip and all that, old man. As such, it is an uplifting paean to the human condition as well as an endearing love story, enlightening by way of its unusualness.
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Act 1, Scene 1, I am corrected in my assumption that the cosmologist was born with his debilitating paralysis, an offshoot of ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease). Actually, when first we make his acquaintance at Oxford, he's a lively, gangly young man (Tom Prior), if not a bit shy and awkward, hanging out with his mates at the pub when he's not contemplating things only the astrophysicists among us might understand. Yep, he's just one of the guys, except that he's a genius. And then it happens: the onset.
Of course, as fate would have it, just prior to the diagnosis and listed under the category, "You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up," Hawking, superbly portrayed in adulthood by Eddie Redmayne, meets and falls in love with Jane Wilde, an undergrad at Cambridge. The doctors give Stephen two years to live. But Jane, played with nomination-worthy subtlety by Felicity Jones, is undeterred. The two are wed.
No spoiler here, Mr. Hawking, 72 as of this writing, is alive and still pondering the mysteries of the universe, confident that somewhere out there in space exists one equation to explain how and why we got here. Almost as extraordinary, director Marsh, working from a screenplay Anthony McCarten adapted from Mrs. Hawking's "Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen," makes the ruminations seem comprehensible without diminishing them. As the scientist theorized, more than once I nodded in agreement. It's Black Holes and Big Bangs for the masses.
A quiet intelligence permeates the travail the pair faces, from daily problems like how to get up and down the stairs to addressing the questions we regularly ask about our own existence. While we've seen similar tales of courage in the wake of seemingly impossible challenges, there is an especially admirable civility here that is in itself a worthwhile goal. Jane respects his work, but will have no nonsense. In turn, he appreciates the sacrifice. The repartee is brisk, thoughtful, witty and, in a civilization laden with entertainment feting bad behavior, a bit of unsullied air.
However, by that same token, viewers accustomed to being inundated with murder, mayhem and skullduggery, punctuated by engulfing special effects and sonic booms masquerading as musical scores, may find it hard to apply their retrorockets for this one. While the director does a fine job of establishing good movement in a movie set mostly indoors, those who simply aren't interested in the implied excitement of well-spoken dialogue and heady thought may very well feel suffocated. Nope, not even one killing, let alone a good grisly one.
But aha, dear reader, there is indeed a good love story, nicely interlaced amidst the mind-boggling equations and hifalutin postulations. While science isn't Jane's thing, the romance language scholar is no slouch in the brain department. The verbal thrust and parry she and Stephen engage in convinces us of their love and dedication. But alas, there may be trouble in this unconventional paradise when Mrs. Hawking forms a friendship with her choirmaster, Jonathan (Charlie Cox), a kind chap who becomes an equally unorthodox sort of family retainer.
Admittedly, there is a democratic satisfaction in seeing that even the geniuses among us cannot escape the soap opera sensibilities that oft invade our love lives. Sticky wicket that it may be, Jane thought they'd only have a two-year run. Jonathan's inclusion puts the 800-pound gorilla in the room. After Jane gives birth to a third child, she takes umbrage when Stephen's dad (Simon McBurney) says he "has a right to know"… that is, who the father is. The nerve. Likewise, we sense a dalliance brewing courtesy of Stephen's saucy new nurse (Maxine Peake).
Such steamy stuff aside, the key attraction here is the infinite possibilities embodied by this acknowledged "Master of the Universe," a time traveler extraordinaire despite virtually complete paralysis. OK, so the narrative glosses over allegations that mightn't have played well. Still, as with other stories regarding folks who have risen above their circumstances, it'll make you think twice before whining when "some minor assembly is required."
And, if Mr. Hawking ultimately realizes his quest, we can brag we know a little something about his "Theory of Everything."
"The Theory of Everything," rated PG-13, is a Focus Features release directed by James Marsh and stars Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones and Tom Prior. Running time: 123 minutes
