The Theory of everything

It’s more about relationships than relativity.

Surprise! The biopic of one of the most brilliant people in the history of the planet is less about Stephen Hawking's discoveries and the theory of relativity and more about the relationships with the people in his life.

Fellow physicists proclaim, “It’s brilliant,” or clap to explain to the audience that what he did just mattered. It’s an odd cop-out for a film about a man who had skills at explaining amazing concepts to average folks. This month’s Interstellar pulled that off a little better.

But I loved the non-formulatic relationship story. After seeing the film, I wasn’t surprised to learn that the film was based on wife Jane Hawking’s memoir. The tone and mood is clearly the ex-spouses’ story.

This film is full of Hollywood magic and it is one of the best films of 2014.

Simply put: A brainy bio about a refreshingly plausible but complicated relationship.

Award potential: Oscar bait. Eddie Redmayne is likely to go all the way to a win for Best Actor; I forgot he was pulling off an effortless transformation without playing up those contortions. I have no idea how he did that. Felicity Jones is a likely nominee as well. Expect 4-6 nominations between Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Adapted Screenplay, Johann Johansson’s Score and maybe Cinematography.

The ten buck review: Worth ten bucks.