Seems like December is the month when studios, independent producers, and hopeful Hollywood investors release their last best hopes for the year-2014 to be exact. So, let's get to the movies again this week. This one is a British film about a living Brit, a famous one at that. But it's more than just a life story; it's based on a memoir written by his first wife, the mother of his 3 children.
Stephen Hawking, physicist, cosmologist, thinker, writer, author of great works and ideas. Here's a man afflicted with ALS from his early adulthood, his university days at Cambridge. He is depicted as an up and coming scientist, a man with new ideas about the cosmos and time. But it is less about physics than it is about a steadfast spouse who manages her disabled husband, her 3 children, and her own career as a university professor.
The film follows their lives, how his condition deteriorates and how they cope together. It works until it doesn't when in his later years he becomes enamored with a nurse enlisted to help him adapt to new technology that will improve his daily life and research.
In time his fame brings him to worldwide attention until he is brought to Buckingham Palace to be feted by Queen Elizabeth II.
They ultimately divorced and remarried other partners. Both are living prosperous lives, enjoying their children and grand children. Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, still writes and publishes on science and cosmology.
The film is well worth the time invested. The cinematography and editing is excellent. The location shots are staged for optimal effect.
Five *****
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