The new Stephen Hawking movie, "The Theory of Everything," features "Les Miserables" actor Eddie Redmayne playing the iconic physicist as he battled with the disease that still haunts him: amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
After its worldwide release last week, the new Stephen Hawking movie has received a good deal of great criticism, particularly for its leading man, English actor Eddie Redmayne. In a long history of biographical pictures taking up prizes when it's time for awards season, Redmayne's chances are looking pretty good.
According to Slate, though, the new Stephen Hawking movie might not be all that faithful to the real life of the famous Oxford alumnus and his first wife, Jane Wilder (played in the film by Felicity Jones). In "The Theory of Everything," the focus is mostly put on his first years in the field of physics, as well as the time when his disease started to really kick in and damage his body's mobility.
While Slate accuses the Stephen Hawking movie of not being realistic in terms of their marriage, The New York Times says that the film oversimplifies the scientific achievements of the famous theoretical physicist, who is without a doubt one of the most recognized names in science and generally in pop culture - he's even had cameos in the popular sitcom "The Big Bang Theory."
While it's been made clear that the focus of the new Stephen Hawking movie is more about his personal struggles early on than about his scientific achievements, but the Times article definitely made a point in complaining about how films based on science hardly ever get the science right, stressing the idea that the movie undermines Hawking's legacy.
In any case, as The Wrap reported, the new Stephen Hawking movie has been gathering a lot of love from critics and audiences alike, even if it was only released last Friday. On critics' website Rotten Tomatoes, it currently holds a score of 78%, while audience-based IMDb ratings give it a 7.7/10.
The film is not the only biopic of an English scientist set to be released later this year: "The Imitation Game," the Alan Turing biographical film starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley, will be released later this month, also to some Oscar buzz.
