Viewers will find a love story with an unexpected twist with “The Theory of Everything.”
The film stars Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne as the famous physicist Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane.
The actors surrounding Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne are subpar and forgettable.
However, Redmayne, of Les Misérables fame, proves worthy of the Academy Award for Actor in a Leading Role for his portrayal of the degenerative disease ALS.
This film chronicles Hawking’s adult life beginning with him in graduate school, shortly before his diagnosis.
The emphasis in this movie is placed on his relationship with and eventual marriage to Jane Wilde.
Scenes gloss over his work leading up to his recognition as one of the most accomplished modern scientists.
Initial scenes are full of the light flirting of a blossoming relationship and the joy that follows being newly wed. But the film begins to show the decline of the Hawkings’ relationship.
From the start, it would seem that this film serves as a testament to the resolve of this couple, particularly Jane, to stay together despite Stephen’s diagnosis and battle with this debilitating disease.
As he slowly becomes paralyzed, Jane commendably serves as sole caregiver while also starting a family and being a scholar in her own right.
Felicity Jones captures the audience’s compassion and admiration from her first moments on screen.
After watching “The Theory of Everything,” one cannot help but feel helpless and even a little ashamed.
One could assume from seeing the initial struggle that Jane experiences to care for all that she would leave Stephen for an easier alternative if developing feelings for another man. The viewer may not blame her.
But there might be resentment for taking the supposedly easy way out for a woman who had dedicated her adult life to caring for her husband. However, when it’s Stephen who falls in love with a hired aid and decides to leave Jane, I was shocked and immediately knew why.
In the portrayal of Jane’s total devotion to her husband, Jones had me completely convinced that Hawking could never survive without his wife’s care and that he was supposed to be content with this life.
Truly the film opens eyes to the dehumanizing nature of this disease. It made me personally embarrassed that I forgot that Stephen also had a right to be happy in his marriage.
By the end of this film, I and I’m sure many others, had a newfound respect for those affected by this disease.
