FESTIVE FILM: REDMAYNE'S 'KNOCKOUT PERFORMANCE' IN THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING

Monday 28 December; Sky Select 4:50pm.

Director: James Marsh. 

4stars-Very good lots to enjoy 1

Synopsis

Whilst studying at Cambridge, physics student Stephen Hawking (Redmayne) starts to suffer problems with his movement and is diagnosed as having motor neurone disease.

Despite this, he continues his studies, developing into a genius whose theories about black holes and the nature of time and space capture the attention of not only academics but the whole world.

As his celebrity grows, his condition claims more and more of physical movements and speech and place an increasing strain on his young wife Jane (Jones).

Review, by Jason Day

Eddie Redmayne is a man out for Oscar glory...or Eddie Redmayne is a man whose agent is out for him having Oscar glory, given the choice of headline snaffling roles he is scooping up. 

The Danish Girl, in which he portrays the first man to undergo a sex-change operation comes out in just over a week's time but he started his remarkable run of success on the big screen with this Academy Award winning portrayal of Professor Stephen Hawking as he succumbs to the early stages of motor neurone disease.

It's a knockout performance in terms of accuracy and he must have pummelled his muscles and joints in nailing Hawking's confinement, postures, walking and even his disintegrating voice.

He spent six months researching and watching footage of Hawking and the results show as Hawking's humanity and ripe sense of humour and self-deprecation are never lost.

He gets blissful and assured support from Jones as Hawking's first wife, an initially perky and pretty girly who grows into a woman of fortitude, practicality and forbearance.

In her hands, Jane Hawking is not a suffering wife, but a strong one whose own affliction is the human frailty of being worn out by devotion.

For the full review: http://cinesocialuk.com/2015/01/10/the-theory-of-everything-2014/

Cast & credits

Producers: Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten. Writer: Anthony McCarten. Camera: Benoît Delhomme. Music: Johann Johannsson. Sets: John Paul Kelly.

Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, Charlie Cox, Maxine Peake, Harry Lloyd, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis, Christian McKay.