The Theory of Everything

Eddie Redmayne justifiably won an Oscar for this biopic, giving an amazing bodily and facial transformation as cosmologist Stephen Hawking, who fought to prove his big-bang theory as his body succumbed to motor neurone disease. However, the key to the film's success is Felicity Jones's understated performance as his first wife, Jane, as she crucially provides a way in to Hawking's often impenetrable world of academic brilliance. Director James Marsh's film foregrounds Stephen and Jane's relationship, spanning young love, family life, and eventual divorce. Key moments are captured along the way, including Stephen's diagnosis, the friction when Jane befriends widower Jonathan Hellyer Jones (Charlie Cox), and the decisive instant when nurse Elaine Mason (Maxine Peake) takes control. Based on Jane's memoir, Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, this is a grandly photogenic work that offers much crossover with the 2004 BBC TV film Hawking starring Benedict Cumberbatch.