THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING (12A) - 4/5
BASED on the memoir Travelling To Infinity by Jane Wilde Hawking, James Marsh’s deeply moving drama charts the romance of Stephen (Eddie Redmayne) and first wife Jane (Felicity Jones) from fleeting glances at a party at mid-1960s Cambridge University through their subsequent battle against motor neurone disease.
Stephen’s parents Frank (Simon McBurney) and Isobel (Abigail Cruttenden) initially warn Jane off their son, fearful of the emotional devastation that will be wrought if he dies within the two years predicted by doctors.
“'It’s not going to be a fight, Jane. It’s going to be a very heavy defeat, for all of us,” laments Frank.
Love must find a way and Jane defies everyone, even a pessimistic Stephen, to stand beside her soul mate.
“I want us to be together, for as long as we’ve got,” she tells him. “If that’s not very long then – well, that’s just how it is.”
Her resolve inspires Stephen to continue his search for “one single elegant equation to explain everything”.
Aided by choirmaster Jonathan Jones (Charlie Cox) and carer Elaine Mason (Maxine Peake), Jane raises the couple’s three children and holds their marriage together.
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