Film

It’s all relative

The Theory of Everything

The marriage of Stephen and Jane Hawking takes center

by Bob Grimm gbrimm@ newsreview.com

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stage in The Theory of Everything, director James Marsh’s sweet and powerful depiction of love in the face of adversity.

The film showcases the talents of Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables), who gives a remarkable performance as Hawking, renowned physicist and eventual Pink Floyd vocalist. Redmayne depicts a relatively healthy Hawking at first, a slightly awkward but brilliant Cambridge student smitten with classmate Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones of Like Crazy). Redmayne transforms as the film progresses, slowly but surely depicting the physical deterioration of Hawking as he suffers from ALS.

Jones is equally powerful as Hawking’s first wife, a woman who refused to let him waste away after his diagnosis. The two marry knowing that the road ahead will be a rough one. Hawking’s initial prognosis had him living no more than two years, a prediction he has outlived by about 50 years.

The movie is a love story first, with Hawking’s musings about black holes and the origins of the universe taking a back seat. Redmayne and Jones are utterly convincing as the couple. Marsh treats their courtship in a magical, glimmering sort of way involving awkward school dances, followed by a memorable wedding sequence. The film unabashedly celebrates their romance.

If there’s a small beef with the movie, it’s that it feels a bit false in its portrayal of Stephen and Jane’s eventual separation after 25 years of marriage. Jane eventually winds up with Hawking caregiver and music teacher Jonathan Hellyer Jones (Charlie Cox), while Stephen goes off with his nurse, Elaine Mason (Maxine Peake), and it’s depicted in a very neat and tidy way. No jealous fits, no pain in the loss of the relationship. Stephen and Jane just sort of nod at each other, with Stephen acknowledging that “Jane needs help,” and they part ways as a couple.

For entertainment purposes, I’m OK with Marsh and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (who based his script on a Jane Hawking book) focusing on the fairytale element of Stephen and Jane’s coupling. They managed to stay together for quite a while, longer than many couples.

If the filmmakers had chosen to make this a movie about their true relationship struggles, I suppose it would’ve been a different movie altogether. There’s a palpable beauty and sweetness in the time they spent together, and that’s what the film stresses. It cops out a bit, but that doesn’t wind up being a deal killer. The movie stops when the two separate in 1990. For the true story of where they stand now and what happened in their new relationships, you must consult the Internet. Seminal moments in the life of Hawking are covered, including the introduction of his computer-aided voice and electric wheelchair. It’s uncanny how accurately Redmayne captures that radiant Hawking smile. It’s a performance so good that you forget you are watching an actor portray somebody and not simply spying on the real guy.

While Redmayne surely has the showier role, Jones provides the emotional core of the film as Jane. Her work here is her best since her breakthrough performance in Like Crazy, although she did shine last year in The Invisible Woman. Both will probably find themselves in the running for an Oscar.

Hipsters often dress ironically for a day in the park.

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As biopics go, The Theory of Everything isn’t terribly introspective or revealing. It’s an idealistic love story involving an iconic figure, and it winds up being a very romantic one. Being that it stops nearly 25 years ago, a sequel involving Hawking’s second marriage and his cameo on Big Bang Theory would afford Redmayne a chance to revisit the role, right?

Yeah, that’s probably not going to happen. Ω

4Big Hero 6 Disney and Marvel deliver one of the year’s best animated films in this delightful story of a boy and his big, puffy robot. Hiro (voice of Ryan Potter) is an inventor, as is his brother Tadashi (voice of Daniel Henney). While Hiro likes to win money at robot fights, his brother is concentrating on helping the world with Baymax (voice of Scott Adsit). Circumstances arise that leave Hiro in the company of Baymax, who turns out to be rather adorable and chummy for a robot. Hiro updates Baymax to fly and fight, then enlists his friends to join him in the fight to stop a mysterious masked man from stealing one of Hiro’s inventions. Baymax and Hiro are a touching, fun screen combo, and the animation here is dynamite. The movie is a blast from start to finish, and it actually does well with the heavy emotional stuff. It’s visually inventive with a strong script that makes you care for its characters. I’m quite certain there will be a sequel. It should be noted that “Feast,” the more traditionally animated short that precedes the film, starring a little Boston Terrier-looking pup named Winston, is also a real winner.

2Dumb and Dumber To After a lot of stops and starts, this one finally makes it to the screen 20 years after the original. Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels return as Lloyd and Harry, movie history’s two biggest dumbasses. While Carrey slides right back into the role of mischievous goofball, Daniels seems to be forcing it a bit, so the chemistry is off. Bobby and Peter Farrelly make their two stars labor for laughs with a script that is unfunny with a bunch of hit and miss gags (most miss). The plot involves Harry finding out he has a daughter, and the two going on another road trip in search of her (Harry also needs a kidney, thus the need to find the daughter for donor purposes). There’s a gag involving an old woman under the covers that I can’t believe made it into a PG-13 movie, and a couple of other decent laughs, but the chuckles are far and few between. Diehard fans of the original will be happy to see these characters back in play, but that will be accompanied by the sadness of wasted opportunity. An after credits scene claims there will be another sequel 20 years from now. I’m hoping that’s a joke, because there really is no need to visit these characters again. Also, I can’t believe how nasty this film is to Kathleen Turner, and I’m a little mad at myself for thinking the way she is taunted is the funniest thing in the movie.

2Horrible Bosses 2 While the first Horrible Bosses got by on the charms of its three stars, the second one winds up being a near miss. Nick (Jason Bateman), Kurt (Jason Sudeikis) and Dale (Charlie Day) have decided to go into business for themselves after the events of the first film. They wind up on TV pitching a stupid idea called the Shower Buddy, where they are seen by Rex (Chris Pine), the son of billionaire businessman Bert Hanson (Christoph Waltz). This leads to that, and the boys wind up in a kidnapping scheme involving Rex trying to double-cross his dad. The screenplay strains to bring back the likes of Jennifer Aniston as the naughty dentist and Kevin Spacey as the embittered ex boss. It also doesn’t help that Day and Sudeikis are a bit overwrought this time out, their acts getting a little tired. It should be noted that Bateman is easily the funniest thing about this movie, effortlessly smarmy as always. I laughed a fair amount of times, but felt like the three stars would be better served with all new material and premise. I like seeing them together, but they need a new place to play.

3The Hunger Games: MockingjayPart One After a rousing second chapter, the Hunger Games franchise gets a little darker and introverted in its third installment. The results are perhaps a slight step back from the truly winning film that was Catching Fire, but you are still dealing with a good movie in this one. Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence), after being rescued following her complete annihilation of The Hunger Games, is being used as a propaganda tool to get at the evil Capitol government and its wily leader, President Snow (Donald Sutherland). As it turns out, Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) survived the second movie, and is being used as a propaganda tool as well (He’s being held captive by the Capitol). A lot of this movie takes place underground and in the dark, with a few good action sequences. It should be said that this only covers half of the third book in the popular series, and everything builds up to quite the cliffhanger ending. Lawrence is good here, although a couple of scenes are a bit jarring, and not in a good way. She does get a chance to sing, and she sings quite well. Philip Seymour Hoffman completed his role before his death, and he’s typically great.

4John Wick The latest Keanu Reeves vehicle is a true stunner. It boasts a high body count, and offers cinematic proof that you shouldn’t mess with a man’s best friend. In the film’s opening moments, we learn that the title character (Reeves) has lost his wife, and he’s taking it justifiably hard. After a member of the Russian mob kills his dog and steals his car, we find out that Wick is a former assassin with guns and gold buried in his floor. The loss of his ride and canine friend are enough to make him spring back into action, and he does so in spectacular fashion thanks to Reeves and directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski, both making their debuts. In the pantheon of action movie directing debuts, this one stands very tall. Willem Dafoe makes a nice mark in a few scenes as a double-crossing hitman. Adrianne Palicki, the actress who was supposed to be Wonder Woman until NBC saw the pilot and puked, shows action movie chops as another gun-for-hire that can’t be trusted. This is a great-looking movie that mixes in some strong emotions with its awesome set pieces. It’s nice to see Keanu Reeves back in the saddle.

5Interstellar The latest from writer-director Christopher Nolan is a triumphant piece of moviemaking, a science fiction film that dares to go outside the lines and actually create things and hypothesize. In the future, Earth is getting swallowed up by dust, all the crops are dying, and the Yankees really suck (wait … that’s true now!). Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), a farmer and former test pilot, is raising his two children after the death of his wife. He and his young daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) discover a strange site that just happens to be the remnants of NASA, where an old scientist (Michael Caine) is in the middle of a plan to save the human race. Cooper eventually winds up flying a mission to enter a wormhole and explore distant planets for their ability to sustain life. The major drawback is that time gets all warped during space travel, and the slightest delay can cost him many years back on Earth. The movie gets a little crazy, farfetched, and possesses more than its share of plot holes. I don’t care. It’s a terrific viewing experience that made me think it’s an all-time great science fiction film, even if it is a little crazy. Nolan wrote the film with his brother Jonathan, and they come up with some ideas that seem quite impossible, perhaps illogical. Yet, within the context of this sprawling, great movie, it all works just fine. The movie offers many great surprises, performances and brain teasing concepts. It’s also weird and insane, and I love it for that.

4Nightcrawler Jake Gyllenhaal is the very definition of serpentine in this scathing look at TV news and the lengths producers and stringers will go to for ratings and a payday. When Louis Bloom (Gyllenhaal), a desperately unemployed man, happens upon a car accident in L.A., he notices men filming the incident and selling the footage to news outlets. He procures his own camera and proceeds to do the same, eventually forming an alliance with a struggling news director (Rene Russo) and proving there is really nothing he won’t do to get his footage on the news. Gyllenhaal is excellent here, his second great 2014 performance after playing twins in Enemy. The guy is really stretching out. According to Nightcrawler, gone are the days of dignified anchormen and heroic news gatherers. The tie-wearing talking heads and scrappy field reporters have been replaced by bloodsuckers and sycophants, with the likes of Louis Bloom leading the sick charge. The baser instincts that may’ve been a small part of an intrepid news reporter’s makeup have taken over and, unfortunately, they appear to be delivering what the people want. 90 Auto Center Dr.