Preface

• I had heard about how fantastic this film was, and how out-of-control the performances were, so I was pretty intrigued.
  • Stephen Hawking movie, sounds good!
• Going in, you guys should know though: I’m not a huge biopic person though, for a few reasons. (Unless it’s The Social Network)
  • 1, I feel like far too often they tell slices of the person’s story, assuming you already know enough and just want to see it as a movie.
    • That’s why I wasn’t a huge fan of Lincoln.
  • 2, Paralleling the other, it tells you too much and turns into a script-biography of the person’s life.
• Luckily, this film was able to balance the two out nicely and be a very good movie experience.

Cast and Characters

• Let’s talk about the cast of this movie.
  • Oh, man…
• Eddie Redmayne is Hawking in this movie and he absolutely nails it.
  • Stephen Hawking has Lou Gehrig’s disease, which isn’t just one straightforward injury but a progressive, deteriorating illness.
    • Redmayne captures each crumpling phase of Hawking’s life unrealistically well.
  • He’s just a fun 20-something at the beginning of the film, and still has a smile on his face at the end, despite the deterioration and transformation the character has endured.
  • He’ll get nominated for an Oscar for sure.
• And Felicity Jones is pretty good in the movie too.
  • She deserves the nominations coming to her, though I don’t know how many she’ll win.
  • What I mean is this: her performance was really good in the movie, but I feel like you could have put one or two other actresses in her place if needed.
  • She did play a really good character though, and I enjoyed her on screen.
• Other than those two, there weren’t too many other major characters in the film, and there were a lot of lesser-knowns in roles.

Script

• The script of this movie is actually really solid.
• All of the dialogue is realistic, and I was able to follow along with the story.
• Also, the theories that were being explained were really accessible, like I actually understood them as they were being explained in the movie.
• There were two script-related things, though, that bothered me.
  • The first was a character who was introduced about halfway through the film, and then a small plotline involving him or her that just brought the movie down.
    • I get that it happened in real life, but it kind of negated the 5/5 movie that had been established.
      • And the movie really was perfect until that part.
    • The other problem I had was that the movie felt like it could have ended about three times, and when it did end, it was just a bit of a drop-off ending.

Themes and Morals

• This movie had some really great themes though.
• I loved the themes, more than a lot of movies this year.
  • The film really teaches that you can accomplish anything in life when you put your mind to it.
  • The most important one of the senses isn’t one of the senses at all.
    • It’s our ability to think.
  • The movie really showed what matters to us in life, and he we should all live our lives, and how important everybody, and every mind is.

In Conclusion

• In conclusion: I’m not a huge biopic person.
• However, The Theory of Everything really presented a compelling story about Stephen Hawking’s life with a breathtaking lead performance, despite two turns in the script I thought threw the movie from its great course.
• I expect to hear a lot about this movie come Oscar nominations, though I don’t know that it would win any…

4/5

***

So guys, those are my thoughts on the Theory of Everything! Have you seen this movie? If so, leave your thoughts down below! And as always, thanks for reading guys.