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0 of 3 Premium Clicks used this month SUBSCRIBE Print + Online Subscriber Activation | Register x Forgot Password | Need an Account? subscribe | newsletter | deals Home News Latest Stories 10 things to know for Tuesday Teacher's Tips: College not the end-all for every student Ashland firefighters cook for seniors at Thanksgiving feast Helicopter officials admits he falsified data Two-alarm fire damages Ashland home Education Teacher's Tips: College not the end-all for every student SOU Honors College team takes on Food Bank project Kiwanis club invites fifth-graders to write flag essay AHS club helps fill Ashland Emergency Food Bank Ashland High School: Students get schooled in interviewing Environment Don't like weather where you are? 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Ashland Calendar, Nov. 25 ... GMO label measure, losing by 809 votes, headed for recount ... 10 things to know for Tuesday ... Ashland Calendar, Nov. 25 ... GMO label measure, losing by 809 votes, headed for recount ... Movie review: 'Theory of Everything' is winsomely human By Dana Barbuto The Patriot Ledger DailyTidings.com By Dana Barbuto The Patriot Ledger Posted Nov. 14, 2014 @ 12:01 am By Dana Barbuto The Patriot Ledger Posted Nov. 14, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Social News Eddie Redmayne (“Les Miserables”) doesn’t just portray Stephen Hawking in the biopic “The Theory of Everything,” he fiercely becomes the legendary British physicist. It’s pure bravura. Redmayne goes deep behind those black-framed glasses and inhabits Hawking on an emotional level, touching the soul of the man who slowly lost the function of his body and voice to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The disease might have taken his body, but it didn’t stop his mind. Given only two years to live upon diagnosis when he was a young Ph.D. candidate at Cambridge, Hawking went on to defy that death sentence, and is still alive at age 72. He’s become arguably the world’s greatest theoretical physicist, cosmologist and author of the groundbreaking book “A Brief History of Time.” The film, the first feature from Oscar-winning documentarian James Marsh (“Man on a Wire”), paints a moving example of love conquering all. Based on a memoir (“Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”) by Hawking’s first wife, Jane, it comes as no surprise that his better half is portrayed as a devoted wife whose unconditional love gives her husband the strength to survive. It’s the old, “behind every great man is a woman” cliche. But in this case, it feels utterly true. As the winsome Jane, Felicity Jones (“Like Crazy”) achieves the nuance and pathos others have raved about in her previous performances. She’s both delightful as a young arts student in love and heartbreaking as the put-upon mother of three and main caretaker of a deteriorating Hawking. The film opens as the couple meets cute at a college mixer. It’s love at first sight, even though he’s “strange” and wears funny bow ties. Their yin-and-yang relationship is established early: She’s artsy, he’s scientific. He’s sarcastic; she spends Sundays at church. She’s proper and pretty; he’s goofy and gangly. Their first kiss is the night of the spring ball under a sky full of glistening stars. You swoon. Soon after, the symptoms of muscle deterioration appear, and Redmayne is fantastic at depicting it via contorting limbs, gnarled fingers and an unsteady gait that ultimately leaves him face-planted on the quad before ending up in the emergency room. Marsh, working from a script by Anthony McCarten, pulls off the daunting task of making the film less about illness and science and more about the man — and woman. Never lost in the telling is Hawking’s outsized sense of playfulness and humor and the Herculean sacrifice Jane makes when she said “I do.” Love didn’t conquer all, however, as the couple eventually amicably divorced in 1995. Together or apart, however, the film belongs to Redmayne, who delivers a star turn that’s sure to be remembered come Oscar time. He’s nothing short of amazing, transforming from a man full of life and promise to walking with one cane, then two, until being confined to a wheelchair and spoonfed soft food after a tracheotomy steals his ability to speak. Redmayne is strongest when he can’t give voice to his character. His eyes and expressions speak volumes, even before communicating via that iconic voice synthesizer. Charlie Cox as Jonathan Hellyer Jones is endearing as the handsome choirmaster who inserts himself into the family to lend a hand. Maxine Peake plays Elaine Mason, the nurse who called the now-mute Hawking “the most brilliant man she ever met.” It’s with these two characters that the movie gets a bit schmaltzy. But that’s just a minor shortcoming that never detracts from Redmayne’s grand performance. In the opening scenes, Marsh trains his camera on Redmayne, zigging and zagging while riding a bicycle through the Cambridge campus. He’s so fluid, full of speed and movement. By the film’s end, that image becomes even more meaningful as does the line Hawking later recites: “While there is life, there is hope.” Dana Barbuto may be reached at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @dbarbuto_Ledger. PG-13 for some thematic elements and suggestive material. Cast: Eddie Redmayne, Felicity Jones, David Thewlis, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney and Christian McKay. Grade: A-. By Dana Barbuto The Patriot Ledger DailyTidings.com By Dana Barbuto The Patriot Ledger Posted Nov. 14, 2014 @ 12:01 am » Comment or view comments Reader Reaction » STAY INFORMED Email NewsLetter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. calendar Connect with DailyTidings.com Facebook Twitter RSS Back to top Reader Services Reader Services home Subscriptions Subscriber controls Contact us Submissions Photos Events Letters to the editor Corrections Alerts Email alerts RSS feeds Text Alerts Advertise Media Kit Home Products and services Ad rates Advertising contacts Mail Tribune Daily Tidings The Nickel Shop Our Valley Blogs Stay Informed Email newsletter Sign Up Today Sign up for our newsletter and have the top headlines from your community delivered right to your inbox. Your privacy is important, read our privacy policy. © Copyright 2014 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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