Before I begin this Review I want to say two things:

1) Originally this post was going to be of a comedy film, but after login on to Popcorn Time and seeing they had this one (which I never saw when it came out, because it wasn’t available in theaters here) I was  internally screaming of excitement and stating that no force on this Earth would stop me from watching it.

2) Congratulations to all of the lovebirds on Valentine’s Day, and I mean the real lovebirds not the ones who like to show it off 24/7 on social media to feel they’re cool, but to those who actually strive to be together and overcome obstacles as well as always trying to understand each other’s flaws. Also to all of those single people around, don’t worry I don’t have a Valentine either… except for my dog, he’s the one that makes me feel like the most amazing person in the world, but remember all the chocolate will be cheaper tomorrow and we live free from the stress of  relationship drama. But I wanted to say whoever you are you will find someone who will see all of the amazing things you have to give and they won’t leave at the first sign of trouble, there will be someone that will look at you as if every single wonderful thing in the universe lived inside of you. Until then, please treat yourself with love I know it is hard but you are worthy of affection.

Back to the movie review: This has to be one of the most touching movie I’ve seen in a while, every little thing about it was wonderful. I felt happy and sad along with the characters, it felt so real to me unlike other movies that even though they talk about real people they tend to be somewhat unrealistic when compared to their original counterparts. It shows that sometimes no matter how long you are with someone or how much you struggle to find a way to make it work, there’s just no way that it can last forever if eventually things get too difficult for both parts of the relationship; yet this does not mean that all the time spent together was less meaningful than when it started. When we talk about a man like Stephen Hawking sometimes you fear that the story might’ve been saturated with a lot of science-talk and less romantic details, yet director James Marsh managed to find the perfect balance between those two topics (almost the way that Einstein did in the letter he sent to his daughter when he talked about how love was the most powerful energy in the world) which are opposites sort of like Stephen and Jane when we think about their beliefs and the mayors they pursued. They manage to portray his theory in a way everyone, even those that aren’t particularly fans of scientific topics, could understand and enjoy by describing it in a way it could relate to every day life, of how time really does matter when we don’t know how long we’ve got. The photography was amazing, the tonalities in every scene where the beginning would appear to have a more cold-blue tone and later on it turns vibrant with colors as their relationship blooms yet as things change I felt as if though there were still colors but they weren’t as vibrant as the story went though a rough patch everything seemed colder again.

The film tells us about Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne)  and his relationship with his first wife Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), they were basically college sweethearts at Cambridge University though they were a bit opposite: Stephen was a physics mayor and didn’t believe in God, while Jane was a literature student who truly believed in God. Later on after falling on campus, Stephen discovers he has a motor neuron disease and that his life expectancy was of 2 years, thus leading him to initially try to push Jane away from him and distance himself from everyone. Then he gets inspired to make his thesis about a time theorem that could help discover the beginning of the universe, then later on states that the universe indeed has no boundaries therefore no beginning. Throughout all of this success and him becoming an acclaimed physic Jane is with him, supporting him when his health begins to deteriorate and forming a family. Even though Stephen seems to happy with his success, Jane begins getting depressed since she has to be responsible for almost everything in their lives, it gets difficult for her to finish her thesis, to have a normal life, and to be happy herself; so she comes to the realization that she can’t take care of Stephen on her own and that she needs something to relieve her stress. She meets Jonathan after joining the Church choir, he decides to help Jane with Stephen and the kids. But after she gives birth to her youngest child, Jonathan leaves after overhearing a conversation between Jane and her mother about how the child isn’t Stephen’s and that Jane may have cheated on him with Jonathan. Things are fine until Stephen starts choking (something that had been happening regularly for no reason) during an Opera performance and he is rushed to the hospital, which leads to him getting a surgery to prevent this from happening again that at the same time prevents him from ever speaking again; thankfully a man created an electronic system for Stephen to communicate by typing words to a computer and this would produce an audio for everyone to listen. Jane then hires a nurse named Elaine to help her with Stephen, they become really close and after telling Jane he was taking Elaine with him to America they both realize that their relationship is strained and they can no longer be together anymore. Elaine and Stephen got married while Jane and Jonathan began a relationship, even so Stephen and Jane still remained good friends so much that he invited her to accompany him to meet the Queen.

It’s a beautiful film, the visuals were spectacular, the cast delivered great performances with their characters (Eddie Redmayne met with Stephen Hawking to learn how to play him perfectly, which he did and even Stephen agreed), had an amazing musical score, also the production design really captured your attention helping you travel back to that time period. It received many positive reviews including a 7.3/10 rating on Rotten Tomatoes and many nominations:

Four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama for Redmayne and Best Original Score.

Three 21st Screen Actors Guild Awards nominations, winning one for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role for Redmayne.

Ten nominations in British Academy Film Awards or BAFTA and won three; Outstanding British Film, Best Leading Actor (for Redmayne) and Best Adapted Screenplay (Anthony McCarten).

Five Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor for Redmayne, and Best Actress for Jones.

It deserved all those nominations and awards, a perfect masterpiece that combines romance, drama, and science into one with great balance. Highly recommend everyone to watch it, you won’t be disappointed.

Personal Rating: 9.8/10 Galaxies