When the Stars Align
January 10, 2015
The Theory of Everything (2014).
D: James Marsh. W: Anthony McCarten. DP: Benoît Delhomme. Starring: Eddie Redmayne/Felicity Jones/Charlie Cox/David Thewlis/Emily Watson/Maxine Peake/Harry Lloyd/Simon McBurney. (based on Jane Hawking’s book, Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen)
This winter film season is flush with dealing with the dueling biopics. The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game follow two great British minds who not only broke mathematical boundaries, but experienced incredibly challenges in their personal lives. The irony being that Benedict Cumberbatch already played Hawking, in a 2004 BBC television movie simply entitled Hawking. It is hard not to compare the two now, but in future years they are surely to develop singularity.
The Theory of Everything is adapted from Jane Hawking’s own book about her life with famous physicist Stephen Hawking. A biopic yes, but one that is structured around a relationship that would define and contribute to Hawking’s work. Crippled by ALS or Lou Ghehrig’s disease while a Cambridge PHD student, Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) is given two years to live. Regardless his work and relationship with Jane (Felicity Jones) continues to much success, though not with out painful challenges.
Redmayne, known mostly for 2012’s Les Miserables and 2011’s My Week With Marilyn, is unforgettable here. The manipulation and control of his body is impressive, but his sense of grace and humor allows the character to feel alive and three dimensional. His large eyes and mouth are advantageous here so that Stephen does not seem lost behind glasses or gadgets. Redmayne’s chemistry with Jane played by Felicity Jones (2013’s The Invisible Woman, 2011’s Like Crazy) draws the emotional palette of the film. Jones’ carries her character with poise that travels through the years of Jane’s life well. The duo is supported well by a nice turns by Charlie Cox as their friend Jonathan and Harry Lloyd as Hawking’s Cambridge chum.
Throughout the film director James Marsh and cinematographer Benoît Delhomme use a liberal amount of close ups. The inflections of Redmayne’s face are charted and gives the narrative an intensely intimate quality to it. A few times a sepia tone or filter is used giving some sequences the look of a home video, which is a unique touch. However, the sort of rehash or film in sixty seconds montage at the end is silly and reductive. Jóhann Jóhannsson’s score is incredibly beautiful, but maybe used a bit too heavily in some scenes.
The Theory of Everything is not about science or brilliance or perseverance or love, but rather that combination that generates hope. Although there is not anything game changing about the film as a whole, it’s certainly an engaging and moving story that is well acted.
Persecuted Brilliance gets a Biopic
November 23, 2014
The Imitation Game (2014).
D: Morten Tyldum. DP: Oscar Faura. W: Graham Moore. Starring: Benedict Cumberbatch/Keira Knightley/Matthew Goode/Charles Dance/Mark Strong/Allen Leech/Rory Kinnear/James Northcote/Matthew Beard. (Based on the 1992 book “Alan Turing: The Enigma” by Andrew Hodges).
As the Oscar predictions begin to roll in, there is nothing like a decent star-turning biopic to get people really talking. Among the Weinstein Company’s gets during it’s festival runs (Studio Canal is distributing here in the UK), The Imitation Game pulled a screenplay off the Blacklist and a twenty year old book off the shelf. Couple this with BBC’s Sherlock star, Benedict Cumberbatch, and yo
Based on the life of Cambridge mathematician, Alan Turing, The Imitation Game is structured like a typical biopic and uses three different timelines. The film follows Turing (Cumberbatch) as a young teen at boarding school, his hiring and involvement with the British war effort in cracking the Nazi enigma code, and his final time where he is persecuted for being homosexual. The structure is non-linear, moving through these three periods, which is one of its weakness. Cumberbatch’s Turing is so subtly complex and quietly devastating that this Hollywood glossy structure doesn’t ring true. That being said a linear narrative would have been equally as boring and lacked any suspense, but thankfully the film is not ruined.
The driving force of The Imitation Game is certainly Cumberbatch. Lithe like his Sherlock, he creates a Turing built on language and genius that has licked his bullied wounds and moved on. He has moments where he teeters on the brink of Sheldon Cooper land, but his instincts seem to bring him back. Cumberbatch is supported well by Keira Knightley’s Joan whose connection with Turing has lovely tenderness to it. Although surrounded by other deft English actors the camera hardly strays from Cumberbatch. There are consistent shots of the back of head throughout the film, giving Turing a faceless quality that reminded me of the secrecy of not only the breaking of the code, but of his life in general.
Similar to 2009’s The Blind Side, 2010’s The Fighter, 2011’s The Iron Lady, and even Cumberbatch’s in last year’s The Fifth Estate, the crux of this film is the performance. Much has already been written about how much any biopic can be accurate, and specifically if The Imitation Game address Turing’s personal life enough. I do not think the film marginalizes his persecution as a homosexual, but it certainly isn’t the focus of the narrative. His brilliance at cracking the code and his development of the computer have been overshadowed, even made invisible by his personal life. This is the tragedy and I believe the film’s goal is to reveal that. The sadness is compounded when his pardon was only given in 2013, nearly fifty years after his death. I do not think the film needed to give us more for us to feel that weight, that loss, that disgust at our own history.