Walking
into The Theory of Everything I knew very little about Stephen Hawking.
I knew he was some sort of genius and that he was severely handicap who
was incapable of  normal speaking. I had seen him in a walk on in The
Big Bang Theory. Two hours and three minutes later I knew a lot more
about Hawking and will share only a little with you so that if you know
as little as I did you can make the discoveries along the way as I did.

I
can tell you the movie is based on Jane Hawking’s memoir, Traveling to
Infinity: My Life With Stephen who met him just before he was diagnosed
with a motor disorder that would paralyze and effect most of his body
except for his brain.  Oh yes, he was given 2 years to die at the age of
21. It is not a spoiler to tell you Mr. Hawking is still alive now at
the age of 72. He is a cosmologist who produced a book, A Brief History
of Time, that sold 10 million copies.

Though there are some brief
science and health related scenes that I couldn’t follow The Theory of
Everything is a love story between a man and woman who went through 25
years of marriage with a lot more to face than the challenges that
marriage brings.

Starting with the first meeting between Stephen
and Jane you have no doubt that this is a true story because of the
chemistry and the acting of  Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, both
giving award nominating performances. With David Thewlis as Stephen’s
tutor and mentor, Charlie Cox as a choirmaster, Maxine Peak as a
nurse/speech therapist along with a strong supporting cast as
classmates, family and peers there is no faulting the acting.

The
screenplay by Anthony McCarten rings true except for one Hollywoodish,
sappy line ‘Where there is life, there is hope’ which is the only false
note and I was surprised that director James Marsh who makes an
intelligent, feeling movie and, with the actors, makes the love story
real, allowed that line.  The music for the film by Johann Johansson is
very effective in the sense it doesn’t take you out of the movie at any
time.

The Theory Of Everything  doesn’t have the star power that
A Beautiful Mind had but if you liked that film you will love this one.

An
aside: at one point Stephen Hawking asks, ‘What if the secret of the
universe had to do with sex?’ and I want to tell him that I found out
the answer a long time ago!