The Theory of Everything.

                      The Theory of Everything.        Film Review.

"To be told you are going to be dead in two years, and to be still alive now and to have done the things he's done is absolutely amazing."(Lisa Bruce/Producer.)

Stephen Hawking is 75. When he was diagnosed with motor neurone disease he was told the maximum life expectancy would be two years from the diagnosis. He was a PhD student in 1963. He beat the odds and probably owes his life to Jane Hawking, his first wife. He is still seeking theories of everything possible to explain our existence.

Eddie Redmayne's performance as the physicist Stephen Hawking won him his first Oscar in the Best Actor category for such an outstanding performance: "Eddie's performance is amazing. About half-way through you forget that someone is acting."(Bruce) It's hard to imagine that urchin all those years ago appearing in Oliver with future aspirations to become the Artful Dodger one day. Professor Stephen Hawking praised Eddie Redmayne's portrayal. "At times, I thought he was me." He commended the actor for spending time with ALS sufferers.

The film is based on Jane Hawking's memoirs: "Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen." Felicity Jones plays Jane, a young girl enchanted by the geeky Hawking at Trinity College, Cambridge in 1963. She is studying French and Spanish to his cosmology which he defines as being "a kind of religion for intelligent atheists." Jane's friend Diane isn't very impressed with Stephen or any of the scientists frequenting the bar. He is strange, clever and goes to ban the bomb marches. Yet there must have been an attraction because in a short while he invites her to the May Ball, filmed in the grounds of St John's (which doubles for Trinity). The passionate kiss happens on Kitchen Bridge, Cambridge's second oldest bridge. Hawking felt that Felicity Jones "made a very charming Jane." He visited the set for the May Ball scene describing filming as "wearily repetitious." (Andrew Collins. Radio Times.)

Hawking is studying for a PhD but he is initially indecisive about his area of research until he eventually decides it will focus on time. When he crashes to the ground, an examination confirms the worst-a heavy defeat, the weight of science working against this promising scientist. He refuses contact with his friend Brian, also studying for a PhD and Jane, his girlfriend who refuses to let him waste away: “I want us to be together for as long as we’ve got and if that’s not very long, that’s how it is. It’ll have to do.”  Telling him that she loves him is enough for 

Hawking to fight this dreadful disease. Hawking’s father is more pessimistic than Jane and she tells him they will fight this illness together. She shows courage and determination, having to sacrifice her own studies to be a carer for Stephen, to raise his children and to promote his career.

A wedding follows then the first baby: Robbie and we can see how he has deteriorated physically when he has to use two sticks to walk and is unable to climb downstairs. His thesis is criticised by his professors and he seems dismayed until Professor Dennis Sciama congratulated him on an extraordinary theory and informed him he was now a Doctor. Celebrations all round. He decides he wants to prove “with a single equation that time has a beginning. The one simple elegant equation to explain everything.”

Before long he had published his first book on radiation, otherwise referred to as the black holes. Two more babies. Further deterioration and Stephen has to use a wheelchair and fed. All of this takes its toll on Jane and she appeals for help in looking after her demanding and growing family. Her mother persuades her to return to the church and join the choir, which will give her a break that she so desperately needs. The choir master is Jonathan Hellyer Jones played by Charlie Cox who becomes one of the family and grows especially close to Jane. It is likely that Hawking is aware of this and approved.

Hawking soon becomes world-famous and an invitation to opera in Bordeaux almost cost him his life. Choking, coughing up blood and by the time he was taken to hospital he was in a coma on a life-support machine, suffering from pneumonia. The doctor advised switching off his ventilator but Jane refused. “Stephen must live.” He was flown to Cambridge where a tracheotomy was performed. Without this he would have died but it meant he would never be able to speak again.

Miraculously he survived and went on to publish A Brief History of Time (From The  Big Bang to Black Holes) which has sold more than 10 million copies worldwide. His first marriage did not survive and we are confronted with an emotional outburst between husband and wife when Jane tells Stephen: I have loved you. I did my best.” Both sob their hearts out. Fortunately, they remained good friends. Hawking revisited his initial thesis and contradicted his argument over the existence of a God.

“Who are we? Why are we here? If we ever learn this it will be the ultimate triumph of human reason for then we would know the mind of God.”

We learn that Hawking was lively, humorous, full of mischief and an incredible person not some stuffy academic. With Jane’s encouragement he found the will to live and became a living legend. A miracle. And what an incredible film! Highly recommended.

“However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. While there is life, there is hope.” (Stephen Hawking)

REVIEW it by Carol Naylor.

Copyright 2015. Permission must be obtained from the author before this article review is reproduced.