Two weeks ago, I attended a special Hollywood screening of the Stephen Hawking biopic, The Theory of Everything...which included a Q&A session once the movie ended with the main actors, Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones. Needless to say, the two talented cast members received a standing ovation when they entered the auditorium about a minute after the film concluded, and the ovation was worth it. The Theory of Everything is definitely one of my favorite movies of this year (if not THE favorite movie of the year for me)—with Redmayne doing a phenomenal job portraying the world-renowned physicist, and the lovely Ms. Jones being terrific as Jane Wilde, Dr. Hawking's former first wife. Redmayne and Jones had great chemistry together in James Marsh's film, which was very crucial in that the couple's relationship played a pivotal role in how Dr. Hawking coped with motor neuron disease (also known as MND, or Lou Gehrig's disease) once it started to take effect on him during his college days at Cambridge University.
While The Theory of Everything obviously focused on Dr. Hawking's brilliant work on the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, the movie primarily dealt with Hawking's budding romance with Wilde. It was heartbreaking to see the couple go from sharing a dance at the Cambridge May Ball to Jane being teary-eyed as she watched Hawking struggle walking around while the two played a game of croquet together. The fact that Wilde stayed with Hawking and ultimately married him shows how love can overcome all obstacles (not to sound cheesy)...though Wilde rode things out with Hawking on the initial belief that the physicist only had two more years to live. The fact that their marriage would last a couple of decades [the magnitude of Hawking's illness would eventually prompt him to go about his separate way so Jane could live a normal life—which she eventually does with her second husband, Jonathan Hellyer Jones (played by Charlie Cox)] testifies to how anything can happen in life...and that we should enjoy every minute of it till it's really over.
It should definitely be a given that The Theory of Everything will be a front-runner at the Academy Awards next year. The movie should be nominated for Best Picture, James Marsh should be recognized as Best Director, Anthony McCarten should get a nom for Best Adapted Screenplay (since it's based on Jane Wilde's book, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen), Eddie Redmayne should definitely get Best Actor kudos for his convincing performance as Dr. Hawking (especially seeing as how Redmayne visited actual MND clinics to get a better understanding of how the disease worked), and Felicity Jones should get a nod for Best Actress. Technical awards such as Best Film Editing and maybe Costume Design also seem likely...though it's safe to say that The Theory of Everything will inevitably be mentioned in the more prestigious award categories. But Oscar or no Oscar, this movie is a must-see. Understanding cosmology and the other works of Dr. Hawking is a bonus, but see this film to watch how a man who was inflicted with one of the most devastating of diseases can still find a way to be with the woman he loves. Not to sound cheesy, again. That is all.
No comments:
Post a Comment