The Theory of Everything : Review by Shama Vijayan

 “The Theory of Everything,” based on the life of the famous Physicist Stephen Hawking, directed by James Marsh,  is to me the best drama genre  film I have seen in the last one year.  The backdrop of the movie is the  University of Cambridge, where Stephen Hawking  meets Jane Wilde a fellow student, an Art graduate with whom he falls in love.  Actor Eddie Redmayne’s  performance is outstanding,  as the young Physicist, Stephen Hawking, whose  great future is  shattered when he is diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease and is told that he has only two years to live. The heart-wrenching moments are  when  the actor as the brilliant  21 year-old student Hawking,  struck by the disease, struggles to walk with his weak twisted limbs and spends his time in the seclusion of his room believing that he has lost everything.    It’s a difficult role which requires tremendous physical efforts to simulate the crippling effects of the debilitating disease coupled  with emotional anguish. Stephen Hawking’s lopsided smile with his  head dangling on one side is familiar to the world, but to bring him alive on the cinema screen needed a great Director like James Marsh and a brilliant Actor like Eddie Redmayne.  Felicity Jones’ portrayal of  Jane Hawking is brilliant, as the  young girl in love,  displaying indomitable courage and  stoicism in the face of tragedy and helping Hawking win his Doctorate.  The  cracks that appear later in their real life marriage has references to Jane Hawking’s,  “Memoirs – Travelling to Infinity: My  Life with Stephen.”     Johann Johannson’s music score is  delightful.  The film has already won many Golden Globe and other  Awards.     I would like though,  to say  that the movie is more of a  layman’s delight because it focuses more on Hawking’s  life rather than his achievements as a great astrophysicist.  His famous utterance about the universe,   “A single theory explains everything”  evidently gives the film its title