I had a hard time with this movie. On the one hand, the performances are extremely strong. Eddie Redmayne is outstanding as Hawking, right down to the slightest detail. Felicity Jones is excellent as Jane, who goes through a hell of a lot for Hawking as he gradually loses all motor skills but miraculously keeps on living.

meanwhile, he keeps having kids with her and coming up with new theories to disprove his old ones. there's an interesting love triangle that forms between Jane and their caretaker named Jonathan Jones; and later, Hawking with his nurse. It seems like this is a pretty disjointed family but it starts off as a standard "love unconditional" story and loses itself in a wormhole.

Also, I think the film does a disservice to showing why Hawking is so brilliant. He has a vision, comes up with a theory that he presents, sounding like the Elephant Man, and everyone just calls him brilliant and that's physics. Now, I realize that showing math and equations isn't the best for drama...but even "A Beautiful Mind" did a good job of showing an insight into the mind of a genius. Hawking basically gives up being a man for being a brain, but we never really see that part grow while the other part disintegrates.

I couldn't put my finger on what this film was ultimately about, because it goes in so many different directions. Ultimately, the final sequence of showing the reversal of time (which I realize is a big element in the muddled theme of the movie) is very touching and moving...but I just kept feeling like there was something missing.

The performances are very strong; but like in a lot of biopics, it's pretty much the driving force of the film. It's a shame because it was very promising.

out of