I originally began this review by referring to Dr. Stephen Hawking as a "straight up baller"...but somehow, it seemed disrespectful to do so (although given Hawking's sense of humor, he might actually appreciate it). But any way you look at it, Hawking has lived a remarkable life. Diagnosed at age 21 with a motor neuron disease similar to ALS, Hawking was told he had two years to live. Hawking was basically like "fuck that" and is still alive today at age 72. Hawking is a theoretical physicist who has won countless awards and honors for his work. He is one of the most well known scientists alive today and is also an accessible writer who is able to translate his incredible knowledge for the average reader. And he did it all while battling a disease that took away his ability to walk, move, and speak without the help of a device. Such a disease would crush the spirit of many people, but not Stephen Hawking.
But what many people don't know about Hawking is that behind this remarkable man stood a remarkable woman. The Theory of Everything is the story of Hawking's relationship with his first wife, Jane Wilde, whom he met in college and who married him despite what was essentially a death sentence when he was first diagnosed with motor neuron disease. What fascinated me about this movie is how much time it devoted to Wilde (it is, after all, based on her memoir, Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen) and how sympathetic it is to Wilde's struggles to raise a family (she and Stephen had three children together) with a severely disabled spouse while also maintaining an identity of her own. Talk about "having it all"!
Wilde and Hawking were married from 1965 to 1995. Hawking was diagnosed in 1963 and had progressively less control over his own body pretty quickly. Obviously, this couldn't have been a picnic for Hawking himself, but you can also imagine the emotional and physical turmoil Wilde went through. The world of 1965 was not remotely handicap accessible, nor did it look too kindly on "unconventional" relationships, which Hawking and Wilde most surely had. To be a wife in 1965 meant raising children and deferring to your husband. But what if your husband couldn't feed himself? Or hold his own children without assistance? And Wilde had interests and passions of her own. She was a very intelligent woman who eventually got a PhD in medieval poetry. I admired how The Theory of Everything did not make Wilde out to be a saint, nor did it paint her and Hawking's marriage as all roses and champagne.
However, as a PG-13 film--and a very tasteful one at that--The Theory of Everything holds back from giving the audience the entire gritty picture of Wilde and Hawking's relationship. The issue of Hawking's ability to father children is brought up in the most innocent, PG-rated way possible. A college buddy asks Hawking if the disease affects "everything", to which Hawking replies "No, different system. Involuntary." But the film doesn't even get close to examining how a disabled person might actually have sex (for an excellent film on that very topic, please watch The Sessions, incidentally one of my most-read [and favorite] reviews!). Likewise, we see very little of Hawking's day to day struggles with things like bathing, eating, and using the bathroom. Now, I realize that your average moviegoer isn't thinking "Sure, he's a world-renowned genius and all, but what I really want to know is how Stephen Hawking deals with taking a shit." I get that. Yet seeing the intimate details of what it must be like to live in a disabled body, or be in love with/married to a disabled person...well, I feel like it would have made for a more interesting and humanistic film. But I'm not everybody.
And to be fair, we do get to see some of the odder aspects of Wilde and Hawking's relationship. Specifically, the introduction of Jonathan Jones, a local choir director who befriended Wilde and offered to help out Wilde and Hawking in an unofficial caretaker capacity and also as an additional father figure for their kids. He actually moved in with the family, which was highly unconventional (and pisses off Wilde's in-laws) to say the least.
Spoiler alert? (does it count as a spoiler if it's just someone's real life?)
Jones and Wilde got married after she and Hawking divorced in 1995. The movie plays pretty coy about whether or not they got it on before she and Hawking separated.
/end spoilers
The film has an ace in the hole in Eddie Redmayne's portrayal--no, embodiment--of Hawking. All the acting (including Felicity Jones as Wilde) is solid, but Redmayne...holy shit. He already looks like Hawking, but the actor's physical performance is amazing. I read an interview with Redmayne where he revealed that he spent so much time capturing the way Hawking is, well, contorted, in the later stages of his disease, that the muscles on one side of his face became noticeably stronger by the end of the shoot. Redmayne's performance really is the centerpiece of The Theory of Everything and totally deserves an Oscar nod.
Before I went to see this film, I read a review that referred to it as "neutered". As I point out above, the film shies away from anything too shocking or depressing about Hawking's disease and his marriage to Wilde, so I understand the criticism. But I was still very pleasantly surprised by the movie. It exceeded my expectations and made me want to learn more about Stephen Hawking. It may air on the side of gentle and romantic, rather than gritty realism, but it's a solid film that pays respect to the personal and romantic life of a man known more for his brain than anything else.
4 out of 5 stars
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