Beautiful, romantic, sad, and inspiring, this story of genius Stephen Hawking (from age 21, when he could walk and talk, to his machine-voiced, wheelchair-bound 40s) through the eyes of his wife Jane is Oscar bait for the incredible performance of Eddie Redmayne--and Felicity Jones is no slouch, either. Redmayne sang in Les Misérables, but I didn't mention him because I'm in the 1% who didn't like that one. I covered him, however, in the excellent My Week with Marilyn (those of you who have seen the latter should read this hilarious synopsis, filled with spoilers). But I digress. Redmayne's scenes were not shot in chronological order, so he took extra care to note how much degeneration Hawking had suffered for each scene, and the contortions of his body are remarkable. I hope he didn't damage his spine! Jones (last blogged in The Invisible Woman) brings the fierce devotion of Jane Wilde Hawking, whose memoir Travelling to Infinity -- My Life with Stephen is the basis of this movie, to life. David Thewlis (most recently in War Horse) is fine as the warm professor and Charlie Cox (Irish soldier Owen in a series arc on Boardwalk Empire, though his broad smile was not much in evidence there) absolutely yummy as the choir master Jonathan. Emily Watson (last in Belle) is on screen too briefly as Jane's mother but the scene's punchline made everyone in the theatre laugh.
James Marsh (won his Oscar and more for the Philippe Petit documentary Man on Wire) directs from the screenplay adaptation by Anthony McCarten (a novelist in his own, er, write, he's new to me). The gorgeous cinematography, making full use of interesting lighting effects (oh, the fireworks!) is by Benoît Delhomme (A Most Wanted Man).
Scientist Kip Thorne is mentioned in this movie, and I knew the name because it came up in the trivia list for Interstellar the other night. He must be glad. Hawking himself loves this movie, and lent his actual "voice" to the project. And just yesterday, I saw this news item, that Hawking has been using the same talking device all these years, and Intel has designed him a new system that they plan to donate to and customize for other users as well.
James Marsh (won his Oscar and more for the Philippe Petit documentary Man on Wire) directs from the screenplay adaptation by Anthony McCarten (a novelist in his own, er, write, he's new to me). The gorgeous cinematography, making full use of interesting lighting effects (oh, the fireworks!) is by Benoît Delhomme (A Most Wanted Man).
Scientist Kip Thorne is mentioned in this movie, and I knew the name because it came up in the trivia list for Interstellar the other night. He must be glad. Hawking himself loves this movie, and lent his actual "voice" to the project. And just yesterday, I saw this news item, that Hawking has been using the same talking device all these years, and Intel has designed him a new system that they plan to donate to and customize for other users as well.
The movie, beginning in 1963, has some great pop songs from the era and then moves into the glorious music of Jóhann Jóhannsson (the only one of his work I've seen is Prisoners), plus a little symphonic Wagner. Again, tonight, I've had trouble streaming music, but this playlist works pretty well, and is in sections, so you can reload the page when it stalls.
Rotten Tomatoes' critics at 83% and its audiences at 84 may be a wee bit less enthusiastic than Jack and I, but you should see this before the Oscars.
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