It is a rather imposing call, as its title suggests, that The Theory of Everything strives to respond to: marrying both the great ideas of the famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking (played by the recently awarded Oscar-winning actor, Eddie Redmayne), and the years he counted, which are as transcendental. Therein lies that quandary to somehow surround this icon with enough humanity necessary for the audience to connect to, without diluting the unapologetic, scientific predilections Stephen Hawking is known for, or undermining the disease that had irreversibly changed the course of his life.
Of English boarding schools, late-night tête-à-tête among students, and the unrelenting hijinks of their peers in the 1960s, James Marsh helms the film’s opening, highlighting the verve of Stephen Hawking’s youth. It also progresses without effort to introduce the man’s brilliance, radiating from the most pedestrian details (one involving a detergent powder, for instance). Redmayne’s portrayal constructs a timid savant, who keeps himself often as a wallflower, always in awe at each moment unravelling before him. He is surprisingly punctuated with a sly sense of humor, evoking a magnetic charm that inevitably draws his first love, the equally charming Jane (elegantly played by Felicity Jones).
While Hawking’s love life with his future wife blooms in a dream-like quality (painted in a dynamic palette of colors through Benoît Delhomme’s lens), there is an unlikely mistress of an illness that slowly wastes away his body. Following an insidious onset of debilitating motor skills and a tragic fall, Hawking is diagnosed to have motor neuron disease (MND as more generally used in the United Kingdom), also referred to as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig’s disease, named after a famous baseball player who succumbed to the same disease). It is a collection of pathophysiological cascades that all lead into a systematic dismantling of the body’s motor system—thus leading to progressive muscle weakness; an inability to perform almost any activity that requires either gross or fine motor skills; and its complications are often fatal. Hawking is told to have only two years to live.
As in the theorem that had inspired Hawking’s scientific pursuits, the events that followed are likewise pushed by a force that compresses everything into a single point. That despite the expected (and unexpected) tribulations that the disease brings, Hawking, together with his wife, Jane, remains unfazed up until a certain degree. The force that is his illness constructs an inevitable hurdle that is soon foreseen not only by the couple but also the audience. The endpoint to Hawking’s battle with the disease is far from the usual prognosis, and is not the final destination of the film itself. The ending is more of a footnote; while the characters’ drives, their motivations which endured so much,
have merged towards the singular fate of the whole movie:
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The Theory of Everything is a love story. Not in the self-absorbed way as most people are accustomed to seeing in other movies, or what this movie seems to hint at the very beginning, when the lovers of this narrative first meet. There blooms such romance that is, in its most genuine sense, in love with ideas. These are the ideas within every mathematical equation, hypothesis, and conversation produced by voices (both human and robotic), and words and whispers, barely audible, all hoping to be understood. This mere ideation of human connection transcends the physical boundaries of the body, or the beliefs of established institutions. It manages to find congruence even between the most critical of minds and the most doubtful of hearts.
Despite its promise (or because of it), The Theory of Everything is a film that somehow still comes up short. It is an admirable effort to have made a biopic that manages to narrowly evade the common pitfalls of melodrama. The cast, especially Eddie Redmayne, evokes such powerful and moving performances that closely offset the last third of the film, which has largely relied on the usual conventions in pulling the audience’s heartstrings, albeit too haphazardly. The film nevertheless thrives not in glorifying such an iconic figure, but by veritably portraying a man with his flaws, dreams and such resilience that needs no further proof.
The Theory of Everything is exclusively showing at Ayala Mall Cinemas starting Feb. 25.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Salz7uGp72c?controls=0&showinfo=0&w=940&h=529]
