"Cosmology," responds PhD
candidate Stephen Hawking when asked about religion at a Cambridge
mixer in 1963. "It's religion for scientific atheists."
This answer may seem like an odd way to
pick up girls (especially proper Christian ones), but it strikes a
chord for the young woman who's asking him – and who just so
happens to be his future wife, Jane. Perhaps she too sees the beauty
in his pursuit of a single universal equation that can explain all
the mysteries of time and space; A 'theory of everything'.
It's not the equation, however, but the
two lovers who become the subjects of
The Theory of Everything,
directed by successful documentary filmmaker James Marsh in his
narrative feature debut. From that first cosmic spark of attraction
to their gradual growing apart and everything in between (including
the renowned physicist's long battle with disease and disability),
the film chooses to deal more with humanistic romance than scientific
philosophy, though packaged as a by-the-numbers biopic with Oscar
aspirations for its stars Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne.
