When Stephen Hawking graduated from college, his I.Q. was already higher than those of all his professors. In fact his is just three points lower than mine. That is pretty darn smart. He’s a mathematician and physicist. I’ve always found all facets of these sciences simplistic. So instead of working on the theory of everything, I choose to watch football and drink beer.
Stephen Hawking is now 72, and this is in itself remarkable. In the 1960s he was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease similar to ALS, and was given only two years to live.
TTOE is a film about Hawking’s life from his college days, to his marriage to Jane Hawking, to his relationship with his therapist, Elaine, who became the second Mrs. Hawking.
It’s about his journey to lead an ordinary life under great physical constraints, while raising three children, and trying to discover why everything exists and what it’s all about.
The BBC made a TV movie based on his life in 2004, in which Benedict Cumberbatch -who now plays the famous detective with those initials – portrayed Hawking. (Coincidence? Does this mean that in 2024 someone else will make a movie about SH, either the detective or the physicist? I have a theory about this, but its mathematical length won’t allow it to be included here.)
The new film is beautifully done on multiple levels; providing a fine weave of Hawking’s personal problems and scientific triumphs.
Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones play the lead roles as SH and his extremely patient and loving wife. Charlie Cox plays a church organist and Maxine Peake is the therapist; both of whom cause rifts in Hawking’s marriage for various reasons. Redmayne and Jones are both superb, especially ER in the physically challenging role of the physicist himself.
Hawking continues to work and write, and still pursues a mathematical answer that will provide the Theory of Everything. Einstein thought he had done this with E=MC2. I built on Einstein’s obvious mistakes in my book, “No, it doesn’t. Well, not exactly,” which is still looking for a publisher.
This movie is highly recommended but there is no violence or things blowing up unless you count when a young Hawking falls and hits his head – and the universe made its really big bang. Rated 3.9 out of 4.0 added up comes to 7.9 = something.
