'The Theory of Everything' introduces audiences to Stephen Hawking as they have never known him - a strapping, healthy young man, falling in love and facing what would be a life-changing diagnosis. VPC


Capturing the essence of genius is surely one of the toughest assignments a filmmaker or actor can undertake.

In The Theory of Everything (*** out of four; rated PG-13; opens Friday in select cities), Eddie Redmayne does a superb job of bringing astrophysicist Stephen Hawking to life, from his days as a college student through middle age.

In framing the film in the context of the love story between Hawking and his first wife, Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), director James Marsh takes a complicated persona and reveals a range of dimensions. The result is an engaging biopic that is often quite moving.

We meet Hawking at about age 20 when he's a cocky Cambridge student, majoring in cosmology. His lofty goal is to find a "simple, eloquent explanation" for the creation of the universe.

When he's not working on his staggering assignment, he dates fellow student Wilde, whose area of specialty is languages, and they quickly fall in love.

Shortly thereafter, Hawking is diagnosed with a motor neuron disease that's related to ALS. The doctor's prognosis is that he won't have more than two years to live.

Despite that grim prediction, Hawking continues his physics studies as his speech and motor skills deteriorate. Almost as impressive as his tenacity is Jane's unwavering commitment to this rumpled young man with the always-smudged eyeglasses. The couple are evenly matched in their determination to fight the odds, and they marry in 1965 and have three children.

A drama about Hawking's domestic life doesn't seem like an obvious choice for a director best known for Man on Wire, a 2008 documentary about tightrope walker Philippe Petit. But Marsh's look at the man behind the brain provides an intriguing and meticulous — if a tad too reverential — approach.

Not only does Hawking live beyond his expected life span, he goes on to a life of extraordinary accomplishments in quantum physics, pursuing his now-famous theories of time.

Though far less well known, Jane tends to his needs with astonishing selflessness. While Stephen refuses to let disability define him, Jane is the one who urges him to finish his doctorate.

The film is involving, nimbly acted and smartly directed, though conventional in its narrative style. What's lacking is a fuller portrait of Jane. While Jones communicates intelligence and warmth and has palpable chemistry with Redmayne, her character's frustrations over setting her own career aside and the sorrow she endures as her husband grows away from her could have been more deeply explored.

The film eventually shifts to include a third key character, Jonathan (Charlie Cox), the director of a church choir in which Jane sings. She and Jonathan develop a close bond. Shortly thereafter, Jane brings in a nurse to care for Stephen and their lives change. They divorce, Stephen marries his nurse, Elaine Mason (Maxine Peake), and Jane marries Jonathan.

The film stops before Stephen turns 50 (he's now 72), and screenwriter Anthony McCarten seems to have chosen that as an arbitrary ending point. Why not go further with the story, which is based on Jane's memoir Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen?

Nonetheless, The Theory of Everything is inspiring as a tale of fighting a debilitating physical infirmity. It's also a compelling personal history that's not exactly brief, but perhaps a bit limited in its scope.

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