REVIEW: The Theory of Everything: My Left Brain

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TIME Entertainment movies REVIEW: The Theory of Everything: My Left Brain Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in a scene from "The Theory of Everything." (AP Photo/Focus Features, Liam Daniel) Liam DanielAP In a weekend of science-fantasy, this story of Stephen Hawking and his wife Jane is true science with a complicated heart

At the movies, this is Science Friday. Christopher Nolans Interstellar and the Disney animated feature Big Hero 6 will battle for weekend box-office domination with tales about scientists of the near future trying to save the Earth by flying into wormholes and other astral phenomena. But those films are the merest, or coolest, fantasies. In limited release is The Theory of Everything, describing the extraordinary life, cosmological breakthroughs and complicated marriage of Stephen Hawking.

The real Hawking is a ghostly presence in the Black Hole space chase of Interstellar, whose science advisor and executive producer Kip Thorne is a longtime Hawking colleague. And the kids in Big Hero 6 are all students at San Fransokyo Institute of Technology, a nod to Caltech, where Thorne taught and Hawking was a visiting professor. The Theory of Everything is not science fiction; it really has very little science, since few viewers would sit as still as Hawking for a lecture on relativity and quantum mechanics. Instead, its a domestic drama that uses Hawkings peculiar fame to provide a thoughtful, plangent example of the Oscar Wannabe genre.

To compete successfully for major Academy Awards, a movie should be a true-life portrait of an exceptional man sorry, ladies who struggles against impossible odds in a noble quest. Its a narrow genre that studios ignore the rest of the year in pursuit of fantasy-film box-office billions, but it often pays off in statuettes for Best Picture (A Beautiful Mind, The Kings Speech, Argo, 12 Years a Slave) and Best Actor (Sean Penn for Milk, Colin Firth for The Kings Speech, Daniel Day-Lewis for Lincoln, Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club).

This month, just under the wire for the critics-groups prizes, the Great Man Theory flourishes in two bio-pics about brilliant Cambridge mathematicians with phenomenal achievements despite physical or social impediments. In The Imitation Game, Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) helps win World War II by breaking Germanys Enigma code but suffers because he is gay at a time when homosexual acts were illegal in Britain. That film opens Nov. 28, and will earn awards galore for Cumberbatchs exceptional performance. For now, heres The Theory of Everything.

Struck by motor neuron disease at 23 and given just two years to live, Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) has survived and thrived for another half century, due in large part to the loving care of his wife Jane (Felicity Jones). Directed by James Marsh and written by Anthony McCarten from Janes 2007 memoir, the film both adheres to and gently upends the conventions of the Great Man genre.

For a movie about the author of A Brief History of Time, this is a studiously chronological retelling of Stephen and Janes 30-year marriage. Theory finds its saving nuances in the story of a vigorous young man whose disease turns him into his wifes invalid child. Bodily degeneration is one scientific fact Stephen ignores with a mulish cheerfulness, even as he takes for granted Janes delaying of her own scholarly goals in order to tend and fend for him. He can grasp the complexities of the cosmos more easily than he can Janes need for upright male friendship with her choirmaster Jonathan Hellyer Jones (Charlie Cox). And as Stephens view of the universe evolves, so does his take on the immutability of marriage. A pretty nurse (Maxine Peake) can have that effect on a theory.

Memoirs by ex-spouses tend to play up the grievance factor; they are often a settling of scores the other party might have gotten the house, but the writer controls the story. Jane Hawkings story might be boiled down to this: I gave up my career to help my husband through his illness for decades. Then he left me for his nurse. (He married Elaine; Jane married Jonathan.) Jane, who was studying medieval Spanish poetry when she met Stephen at Oxford, did eventually get her Ph.D., without being able to make productive use of her degree. It hasnt led to a career, of course, she told The Guardian in 2004, although I have done some sixth form teaching, and some university teaching, and in a sense the frustration is greater now than it ever was because I feel I have had a great deal to offer but I have nowhere now to go.

Given all this, the movie is almost spectacularly even-handed. Renouncing the principles of melodrama, it describes a joining of, and then a conflict between, Good and Good. Before their marriage, when his disease has begun to debilitate Stephen, Jane avers, Were going to fight this illness together. All of us. Their arguments are more likely to be over able agnosticism (his) vs. Christian belief (hers) than on the heroic drudgery they both endure. If there is naivety, its Stephens. When he says, Were just a normal family, she needs to correct him: Were not a normal family. Shes right: they were an extraordinary family.

Marsh, who won an Oscar for his documentary Man on Wire, overdoes the visual fireworks. To prepare viewers for the horror of his subjects immobility, he shows Stephen bicycle-riding, playing pinball, serving as cox on the university rowing team. The camera is every bit as acrobatic: it whirls, indulges in extreme soft-focus, distorts Stephens vision through a wide-angle lens. By insisting that his movie will move, dammit, Marsh gives the impression of not trusting his material.

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REVIEW: The Theory of Everything: My Left Brain

Q87. Do prisoners have access to up-to-date HIV treatments? – Video

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Q87. Do prisoners have access to up-to-date HIV treatments?
From the HIV Avatar Project, posted by the Department of Behavioral Science and Community Health at the University of Florida hiv-avatar-project.com http://bsch.phhp.ufl.edu/

By: UF Behavioral Science and Community Health

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Q87. Do prisoners have access to up-to-date HIV treatments? - Video

Q86. Are people with HIV who receive Medicaid required to join a managed care program? – Video

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Q86. Are people with HIV who receive Medicaid required to join a managed care program?
From the HIV Avatar Project, posted by the Department of Behavioral Science and Community Health at the University of Florida hiv-avatar-project.com http://bsch.phhp.ufl.edu/

By: UF Behavioral Science and Community Health

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Q86. Are people with HIV who receive Medicaid required to join a managed care program? - Video

Stone Creek Psychotherapy named Cougar 100 company

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From our community

The University of Houston has ranked Stone Creek Psychotherapy among the top 100 outstanding businesses owned or led by high-achieving University of Houston alumni.

Stone Creek Psychotherapy features a highly trained behavioral science team, offering a wide array of assessments and therapies that help clients overcome obstacles and lead a more fulfilling life. Consistent with their NeuroSystemic approach, Stone Creek is one of the best equipped centers in the country. Services include wellness consultations and assessments, Neurofeedback, AD/HD services, addiction services, parenting and child-parent relationship therapy, play therapy, couples and family therapy, along with individual and group therapy. Stone Creek clinicians are passionate about their work and approach each case with a deep commitment to personal ethics.

Dianne Appolito, director and founding partner, is a University of Houston graduate with over 30 years of experience in the field of psychotherapy. She is a leading expert in assessing and treating AD/HD and works with adolescents, children, young adults, families and couples addressing college and career issues, behavioral problems and mood disorders, PTSD, OCD, domestic violence, depression and anxiety. Dianne developed a unique relationship model that guides couples through premarital work to create healthy relationships and supports couples who experience stumbling blocks or difficult relationships.

Dana Debes, Director and University of Houston graduate, has 20 years of experience bringing a working knowledge of psychiatric facilities to her private practice. Dana is a certified Supervisor for Social Work Advanced Certification and furthered her training to include the practice of EEG Neurofeedback, a non-invasive alternative to medication. She has extensive experience in helping children, adults, couples and families overcome depression, anxiety, traumatic experiences, marital issues, behavioral problems and mood disorders.

Contact Stone Creek Psyshotherapy at 281-579-0703, or via email at info@stonecreektherapy.com, for additional information or to schedule a consultation.

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Stone Creek Psychotherapy named Cougar 100 company

Aquinos dilemma on preventive and curative medicines

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I have lauded in previous columns the Aquino health agenda. What used to be a utopian dream of health for all now appears to be within reach.

I feel happy when indigent patients tell me that their PhilHealth coverage took care of all, if not a big part, of their hospital bills. I thought that this was a good indicator of inclusive growth, with the countrys economic gains trickling down to the poorest of the poor.

Ive always said in my talks that, for me, President Aquino is the most health-oriented president we ever had. But his recent statements suggesting his health priorities made me wonder about his concept of Public Health and what preventive medicine entails.

There are speculations on why Health Secretary Ike Ona has gone on leave for four weeks to prepare answers to President Aquinos questions on the mass vaccination campaigns of the Department of Health. If I had read between the lines correctly, I think P-Noy is wondering why we have to spend so much money on upgrading government hospitals instead of concentrating on preventive strategies like immunization.

Govt focus

I think there can be no disagreement that the government must focus on preventive strategies. Im sure Aquino gets that kind of advice from everyone. The so-called New Public Health, or NPH, is defined as one which puts emphasis on preventive medicine. But probably it was not explained to the President that prevention does not only entail immunization or other primary preventive interventions.

When we speak of preventive medicine, were actually referring to three levels of preventionprimary, secondary and tertiary.

Primary prevention means implementing programs and services to prevent diseases such as mass immunization, and promoting the reduced usage of tobacco products and other harmful substances. Basically equipped and adequately manned primary health units should be able to handle these.

Secondary and tertiary prevention may require more well-equipped healthcare facilities.

Secondary prevention aims for early diagnosis of a disease when one has no symptoms yet. There are diseases, like high blood pressure, that may well be diagnosed in primary healthcare facilities; but others, like diabetes, cholesterol problems, early cancers, lung and liver diseases, may have to be referred to secondary or tertiary hospitals for a more thorough evaluation, early diagnosis and treatment to stop the worsening of these and prevent complications.

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Aquinos dilemma on preventive and curative medicines

RUSSIA Lavrov Expects NATO To Explain Massing Troops In Europe (Pretext Russian Invasion) – Video

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RUSSIA Lavrov Expects NATO To Explain Massing Troops In Europe (Pretext Russian Invasion)
NATO #39;s commander in Europe has asked the Pentagon to send more troops. He wants to offer reassurance to alarmed allies over the claims Russian militaries hav...

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RUSSIA Lavrov Expects NATO To Explain Massing Troops In Europe (Pretext Russian Invasion) - Video