Saturday, 7 February 2015

The Theory of Everything - A Too Breif History of Hawking

The first time I watched the trailer for "The Theory of Everything" I almost thought it was a joke. Some shitty pretentious biography the likes of "Jobs" with Ashton Kutcher. It just didn't look particularly good. It was almost like the kind of trailer you see for fake films in mediocre sitcoms. Needless to say I was floored when all the raving reviews came in, and even more so when the nominations started flowing. Today was finally mine turn to see what this was about.


It was far from as bad as I had imagined. In fact, it's quite enjoyable. But I can neither say that it's as good as everyone seems to think. The acting done by Eddie Redmayne is marvelous, yes, but the rest is really quite average for a film of this caliber. This is exactly the kind of film that the awards in the US tend to favour, a biopic about a struggling legend who manages to do what few others could. With that in mind, this isn't as good as I feel this genre expects. It is a very broken up story, trying to tell most of Hawking's adult life in two hours. It can be hard at times to keep track up what has been done and what is still to come.

The best parts of this entire thing are Redmayne's performance, and the music. Redmayne is so good as Hawking, that there are parts where I genuinely forget I am watching an actor. This could also owe its fair share to costume, make-up, and casting, but Redmayne could have easily screwed up and handed in a weak performance despite the physical similarities. The music also stands out as something fantastic. It never fails to convey the mood of the film, but is never too invasive, telling you what to think and what to feel at any given time. It just complements the feelings already there, as any good score ought to do.

Overall, this isn't really a film you have to watch, but I think you would enjoy it if you ever end up doing it. If nothing else it helps you sympathise with Hawking, and what it is exactly that he has had to go through to get where he is today.

No comments:

Post a Comment