Black Holes & Red Hearts
The Theory of Everything
Cosmically Coupling
Official Website | Trailers & Mo
PG-13 | 123 min
Behind every great man there’s a great woman. Such is the case of Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane Wilde Hawking. As his brainiac star was rising at Cambridge, so was his penis – for Jane, but then, so was his ALS. There were no ice bucket challenges to be had, but Jane took on a challenge of her own – being in love with someone who would be rapidly deteriorating, and could soon die. But Stephen didn’t die (just in case you didn’t know), and he didn’t give up, and Jane never gave up on him, and helped him become the Stephen Hawking we all be still talking bout. GO JANE GO!!!
James Marsh‘s The Theory of Everything is not really Stephen’s story, but Jane’s. It’s based on her memoirs – Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen – so if you’re looking for the theories within Theory yer better off reading Stephen’s A Brief History of Time or watching the Errol Morris doc of the same name. And while Jane’s story is worthy of telling, the movie kinda lacks the brainy Stephen stuff it’s purposely avoiding
Stephen is played by Eddie Redmayne, who talks and walks steadily in the first act, and then basically becomes a lump of human flesh in a wheelchair for the rest of the film. Not sure if that’s a performance to be applauded, or juss to feel uncomfortable about. Jane gets her justice in the form of Felicity Jones, who carries Stephen and the film from start to finish. How does she do what she does, for him, and not get much in return besides some kids and a lot of anguish? HOW????? See and find out, but I wouldn’t say the answers are so vast that they would fill a black hole
Marsh does a good job with the material, but I STILL expect much more from the guy that gave me my favorite movie of 2011 (Project Nim) and a top 5er from 2008 (Man On Wire). His last non-doc flick – Shadow Dancer – kinda felt the same – good, but not grand. I appreciate Marsh expanding his universe, but it’s juss a little hard for me to curb my enthusiasm when I expect any and ALL of his work to be out of this world
Get yer a$$ to Mars, and orbit Uranus!!
Verdictgo: Jeepers Worth A Peepers
Everything is currently everywhere
and until next thyme the balcony is clothed…