A remarkably bright Cambridge student (Eddie Redmayne) falls in love with a pretty literature student (Felicity Jones). But when he is diagnosed with a motor neuron disease and a life expectancy of two years, he attempts to end the relationship. Her persistence wins him over and they are married but she doesn't realize what she is letting herself in for. This wasn't a film that held any interest for me and if it wasn't for a SAG screener, I most likely would have skipped it. That being said, it's pretty much what I expected. There's only so much you can do with the movie biography genre and the film goes through its predictable paces. After about 45 minutes, it became an endurance test. It's no one's fault. The director James Marsh does about as good enough a job as anyone could expect. The performances of Redmayne and especially Jones are flawless. Indeed, if it hadn't been for their peerless work I might have bailed at the halfway mark. Fortunately, the film focuses on their relationship rather than Hawking the physicist which is fine by me. Is there anything more dull than a scientist movie biography? It's effective, I'll give it that. The striking underscore by Johann Johannsson makes it go down easier. With Emily Watson, Charlie Cox, Simon McBurney, David Thewlis and Maxine Peake.
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