The Theory of Everything

This movie surprised me incredibly. I thought it would focus more on the period when Stephen Hawking was still relatively functional. To be honest, I didn't really believe in Eddie Redmayne. My mistake. The young actor brilliantly portrayed the physical transformation of the brilliant scientist, and it wasn't until the final credits that I realized this wasn't a documentary, that this wasn't the real Hawking. I bow down to Eddie's performance. (08/12/2014)

An incredibly shallow, simplistic, and at times almost tacky story. However, it was accompanied by great music plus an absolutely exquisite, brilliant, simply perfect performance by Eddie Redmayne. He did not only play a man suffering from ALS, but became one for the two hours of the movie. Really one of the best acting performances ever, absolutely 100% convincing. That is why my review is mainly about him. I'm trying to somehow ignore the main story about a woman going through some internal struggle and hardship in life, which was rather dull, as in much less interesting than the life and work of Stephen Hawking. (19/04/2016)

Out of the three currently praised biopics – The Theory of Everything, The Imitation Game and American Sniper – the first one about Hawking is the most inspiring and charming, but also the most sentimental. It’s not a film for Hawking’s admirers, but for seekers of life tragedies, complicated fates, faithful and long-lasting marital devotion, etc. who love a good cry. The depth of the universe is best shown here in a large shot of garden fireworks, in front of which a couple of lovers are holding each other’s hands... The film never gets tacky, but it also never reaches the level of poetic drama and relationship realism of The Notebook. It is rather a textbook example of a beautifully shot and acted idealistic story about good and exceptional people. (17/02/2015)

It's like when the screenwriter only lets me have a glimpse of someone's biography, but just when I've started reading, they skip several pages. The instant romantic storyline doesn't catch my heart at all, and certainly not the snippets of scientific debates. All credit to Eddie Redmayne, in whom I didn't even see that handsome poster boy from Les Misérables for a second, but with this kind of storytelling austerity, neither he, nor Jóhann Jóhannsson's appropriately sensitive soundtrack, have a chance to take The Theory of Everything anywhere higher. (23/01/2015)

This film about Stephen Hawking was a slight disappointment for me. I was expecting an epic story from the life of a man who achieved the impossible, and in the end I got a romantic story that sometimes seemed to be more about Jane than about Stephen. The film is about a relationship that managed to survive anything. In my opinion, this relationship was rational in many ways and was based on absolute devotion. Stephen was very lucky to have people like this in his life. And the filmmakers were also lucky when they cast the beautiful Felicity Jones as Jane and the perfect Eddie Redmayne as Stephen. The movie was flawless in this respect, and the same goes for the music where Jóhann Jóhannsson did some real magic with his piano. The most fundamental problem lies in the story that is more of a romance than a biographical story, and which often seems like it doesn’t know what exactly it wants to tell. That doesn’t change the fact that Stephen had an incredible life and it was a pleasure to watch it in this movie. Hats off. Even though it must be said that this movie is far from perfect, I’m still giving it four stars for everything else that is worthy of attention and managed to squeeze the maximum out of this film. (06/02/2015)