Eddie Redmayne in “Theory of Everything” was superb in his
portrayal of Dr. Stephen Hawking. I saw every nuance of the character that
Eddie was portraying. He created a story with his body that went from healthy
individual to a person losing his muscle ability. This was extremely difficult
character to play. And I can only imagine what Eddie had to do to show us the
transformation and what it means to live with motor neuron disease (or
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig Disease).
The cameraman and the director (James Marsh) captured
Stephen Hawking’s life brilliantly. They showed how he picked up a pen from the
floor with already strange looking fingers in 20s. They captured how hard it was to crawl up the
stairs, to talk, and to breath. However, they also showed us that optimism,
humor, and the will to live of one of the smartest men that has ever lived on
this planet. Thankfully, he is still alive and is just 73 years young. I never
read anything about Stephen Hawking or his work. In fact, I never heard of him
until much later living in the U.S. Now,
I think I will read about this remarkable human being from whom we can learn a
great deal about life, self-encouragement, survivability, and looking at life
with optimism and wonder.
In addition, I liked a great deal how the movie captured
what might have been happening inside Stephen Hawking’s mind as he was
mesmerized with new ideas and inspirations that led him to come up with ideas
and conclusions that he described in his work.
Thankfully, he lived long enough to tell us that. Even if he doesn’t
believe in God, there is some force out there that allowed him to live 50 years
more than what a doctor told him about his chance of survival (2 years). By the
way, did you know that real Stephen Hawking had a chance to experience
zero-gravity flight? I’m not joking. And I do hope that Stephen Hawking hasn’t
lost his humor through the years of tribulations that he had had; I don’t think
he did.
The rest of cast was superb as well. Felicity Jones (Jane
Wilde) was great in portraying a nice-church going person who, probably, wanted
a regular life. But heart does as heart does, right? Her Jane came as close to real Jane as she
could’ve. (After all, we don’t really know these people). I’d venture as to say
that somebody should erect a statue to Jane Wilde as an example of a woman who
loved a man so dearly that, while knowing, married a person who’d become ill
and went through a lot of difficulties that included raising children, taking
care of her husband, making sure home was in good order, bought and cooked
food, worked, and studied in school to receive her PhD (i.e. pursued a dream).
This is an illustration of grand love that she found, fought for, and
persevered. However, in the end, they couldn’t stay together though they
might’ve.
I recommend you all to watch this movie and to experience
its magic. If you think that it is horrific to watch a person to go from
healthy to paraplegic, then you definitely must watch it. Because at the end of
it all, the movie teaches us to be human and not be afraid of tragedy or
happiness that might come if one invests in it. After all, in life, there are
no guarantees. There are only adventures. And, I believe, Stephen Hawking,
Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, and the rest of the cast and crew had one grand
adventure that most people should, on some level, be a little jealous of.
Thanks to all of them we were able to see and experience it.
Eddie Redmayne’s win at Golden Globes was a worthy win of
the hard work he put into it. I only hope he will win an Academy Award. And
perhaps the movie would win one more award as well at the Oscars.
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