Not only brilliant but so shockingly perfect it is beyond belief. That's what I have to say on Redmayne's performance.
Two Academy Awards, two BAFTAs, not only one of each, and every other award given for acting, should go to this extraordinary actor, who plays Stephen Hawking, the world's greatest physicist, in his new movie.
The trailer only left me unable to speak. The silence I had was so intense it was a palpable thing..I was overwhelmed.
I was not much stunned by my emotional reaction to the story, but Redmayne's acting: I was barely able to say a word. My throat had closed and I was choked up with feelings. I stayed in a kind of daze. Then I felt tears. I was in awe of the actor. Which lead me to write this article of course.
What you are reading right now is a draft I had in the 'Waiting to be Published List' for 2 or 3 months now. I'm glad I'm resuming it today, now that the movie has released. Unfortunately not in Mauritius- yet. Hopefully I'll catch that soon overseas.
But coming back to the essence, now that I just watched some Making Ofs,
Eddie Redmayne brings acting genius to this difficult role. He becomes Stephen Hawking, and it is the performance of a lifetime.
The scenes do make you feel like the movie focuses on the personal life of Stephen Hawking and his relationship with his wife rather than solely his accomplishments. It’s an unconventional love story about a relationship that was as complex as it was full of blind hope. It isn’t overly idealistic and it doesn’t try to glamorize the Hawkings’ marriage. It’s far more about the relationships between the characters than the disease itself. The chemistry between Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones is very, very real. *o*.
Hawking, a brilliant student at Cambridge, was struck down by motor-neuron disease at twenty-three. With the help of his fiance Jane, who married him, he somehow managed to meet the challenge and overcome it. He became a professor at Cambridge, and the world's foremost physicist who has endeavored to explain the universe to us. One of his books, A Brief History Of Time, has sold ten million copies.
At the age of 21, he was given a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the form of motor neuron disease known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Yeah- for those who didn't know that's the same disease- you know? the one that made solid water cubes go viral? Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) is the most common of the five types of motor neuron disease. ALS as in:
Eddie brings such a force of character to the living personality. I understand that his challenge was to portray the world’s perhaps most recognizable genius — possibly the only cosmologist with his own, who is still very much alive with his ALS-ravaged body recognizable to a mass audience through YouTube videos. (To many people, ALS might as well be Stephen Hawking’s disease, not Lou Gehrig’s.)
The extraordinary thing about Redmayne is that in the film he goes from playing Stephen as a handsome student to a crippled man with twisted limbs and a contorted face. And I totally feel my muscles contort tediously thinking about the amount of work that went into perfecting and choreographing each movement of every single muscle of that body!
It is a miracle of acting of the highest order, and from the very beginning of this beautifully-made film we believed that Eddie was Stephen.
While I think Redmayne is exemplary in recreating Hawking, it’s Felicity Jones’ work as as Jane Hawking that stands out. Her tenderness and inner-conflict isn’t as video-friendly- it does not seep through the screen unless you try guess the emotions. But it synthesizes the emotional impact of Redmayne physical work more than the actor’s own emotions- she's becomes the origin of everything- somehow or probably the other way round. There would be no Jane without Stephen.
This is one of those MUST SEE films. Don't miss it. Eddie Redmayne is heart-stopping.
Mr. Redmayne, 32, and Ms. Jones, 30, recently chatted over tea at the Crosby Street Hotel in Manhattan. These are excerpts from the conversation.
From The Theory of Everthing's Facebook Page:
A huge congratulations to The Theory of Everything Movie star Eddie Redmayne for winning the Hollywood Breakout Performance Actor Award at the Hollywood Awards!
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I am Aehr.