The Theory of Everything

First Hit: Extremely well-acted and a very engaging story.

Stephen Hawking (played here by Eddie Redmayne) is a brilliant man. His way of viewing our world is ever changing because he continues to open his mind to concepts while having the tenacity to prove things mathematically. Sharing with us, his thoughts through a body that has basically shut down is a story of perseverance and unending support and love from his wife Jane (Felicity Jones).

The film follows the story of Hawking meeting Jane, his learning that he has a motor neuron disease which will slowly disable his physical movement, how Jane’s support allowed him to continue, flourish in the science community, and finally through the end of Jane and Stephen’s marriage and their continued support each other past their divorce.

This film is beautifully shot as the scenes in the house show both havoc and love - amazing.

Redmayne gives an Oscar nomination worthy performance – enough said. Jones is fantastic. I thought she was equally the heart and soul of this film. David Thewlis as Dennis Sciama was great and embodied the man who helped Steven grow and explore his inner universe. Anthony McCarten wrote an excellent screen play from Jane Hawking’s own book “Traveling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen”. James Marsh did a fantastic job of giving us a view into this great man’s life. He did an even better job of giving us a view of how Jane was the base that empowered Stephen.

Overall: This was a wonderful film to watch.

Laggies

First Hit:  Turned out to be a really good film because of excellent acting.

Although I really disliked the title, the film worked. Laggies refers to young adults that are lost and lagging behind their peers in developmental and societal growth.

Here we have Megan (Keira Knightley) who has been living with her boyfriend Anthony (Mark Weber). He wants to marry Megan and begin to follow the path their friends are taking, marriage then children. These long term  friends ("the group") are from high school and they continue to support each other and do everything together.

The setup is that Megan does things with her friends which are viewed as immature, and as she begins to see she is out of step with her group, she begins to wonder what to do with her life and what it means. Although Megan obtained her MFC degree, she found the work unrewarding. The pressure to act like a grown-up, get a job and contribute to society, is growing but she feels like she is floating. Enabling her situation is her father Ed (Jeff Garlin) because he  lets her work for him spinning a directional arrow sign on a sidewalk guiding people to is tax service office.

When Anthony asks her for her hand in marriage, she freaks and splits for a week to “get her head together”. She meets a high school kid Annika (Chloe Grace Moretz) and her friends who take a liking to this older, yet like them, woman. Annika sneaks her home and when her father Craig (Sam Rockwell) finds her in Annika’s room he decides to question her as to why. Throughout this week little lessons begin to appear to Megan and in the end, she finds a way to make steps towards taking charge of her life.

Knightly is absolutely fantastic. She perfectly embodies a young lost woman and then shifts to become a more responsible woman, yet keeping her young enthusiasm in tact. Weber is good as Megan’s fiancé. Garlin is strong as the enabling father. Moretz is sublime. Her intelligent innocence shines through with wisdom and grace. Rockwell is perfect as Moretz’s father. Andrea Seigel wrote a wonderful insightful screenplay. Director Lynn Shelton did an excellent job of letting this story unfold with good acting.

Overall:  I really enjoyed how this film unfolded although I disliked the title.

The One I Love

First Hit:  Interesting concept but I’m not sure the acting raised the story to a level worth watching.

A young couple, Ethan (Mark Duplass) and Sophie (Elisabeth Moss) are having marital problems. The trouble began with a lack of communication,  physical connection and resulting in Ethan having an affair.

Sophie is having difficulty in forgiving her husband and they decide to see a therapist (Ted Danson). After a number of sessions he suggests a weekend trip to a home he uses to assist couples in healing. They arrive and soon discover there are a couple of abnormalities in this retreat home. The story then revolves on how the couple deals with the abnormality and their real dreams of a relationship.

The unfortunate part of this film was in the acting. The actors just didn’t seem strong enough to hold this, possibly interesting, story together.

Duplass is weak as the husband that realizes he’s made a mistake and wants his wife back. His reaction to the abnormity just seemed weak and lifeless – it lacked passion. Moss was better in her role and made the story more interesting. Danson was fine in this limited role. Justin Lader wrote an interesting story and script but it was either Charlie McDowell’s weak direction or the weak acting by the cast that dragged this film down.

Overall:  I loved the idea in the storyline, it just wasn’t executed well.

What If

First Hit: There are really good and engaging moments but it seemed too long overall.

Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe) is lamenting a breakup from his girlfriend.

It’s been a year and as we meet him, he finally deletes her last VM which he has saved 365 times. This was a good way to give the audience perspective of his sadness. He meets Chantry (Zoe Kazan) at a party.

There is an immediate chemistry through their banter. He walks her home and they decided to meet up again but she tells him she has a boyfriend. Through circumstance they meet up and end up being close friends. They spend a lot of time together (which is where the film gets long) in different circumstances and even their friends Nicole and Allan (Mackenzie Davis and Adam Driver respectively), seeing their connection, try to get them to get together.

What didn’t work for me was the script having Chantry being so hesitant to acknowledge what was really going on to her. Yes her boyfriend Ben (Rafe Spall) was a solid guy, but after 5 years together and he didn’t invite her to Dublin to live with him seemed like either a poorly written script or an obvious non-committed relationship.

To have an intelligent character put into this hold position for so long was false.  Her character was too smart to wait so long to make and act on a decision. This in-turn had me not believing the story.

Radcliffe was very good and he projected his restraint towards Chantry with a longing wistfulness that was done very well. Kazan was hampered by the script. I just don’t think she was given the opportunity to make the story better. We all knew the end of the story going into the film. Creating extra delay to get there hurt her ability to perform. Davis and Driver were both amazing and outstanding together. Spall was strong as the solid guy Kazan was waiting for. Elan Mastai wrote the screen play and as I’ve said already there were elongating mistakes in the script that kept the film from moving along to its obvious end. Michael Dowse directed the film and could have driven this film forward in a less meandering way.

Overall: This story had potential but was waylaid by the un-crisp script.

Magic in the Moonlight

First Hit:  Lighthearted philosophical romp through Woody Allen’s belief structure around magic, God and science.

Stanley (Colin Firth) is a magician named Wei Ling Soo. He’s famous and he’s good. He also has a job of invalidating and unmasking people who claim to be spiritualist, people that can speak to the dead and denote a person’s past.

His best friend, and fellow magician, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney) comes to him with a proposition to unmask a young beautiful woman who claims to be clairvoyant. Sophie (Emma Stone) comes from a working class family and because of her abilities has gotten some wealthy people supporting her and her abilities by leading séances.

As the story unfolds, Stanley starts to believe until he sees the fallacy of what is happening to him. The scenery of this film is great. I loved the cars used to represent the 1920’s and the costumes were really wonderful. Stylistically this film is really good, but Allenistic dialogue just seemed to be pressed at times although the last ½ hour was a lot more interesting and engaging.

Firth is excellent as the sarcastic arrogant English magician. However his rudeness actually bothered me from time to time – probably the intended result. McBurney was good as the conniving jealous friend. Stone was sweet as Sophie but she wasn’t quite believable as a psychic. I did think that this pairing didn’t work well because of the age differences between the two. Allen both wrote and directed this film and as expected we get Woody’s version of the world and here it was a little overhanded.

Overall:  Enjoyable and easy to watch, however not sure if the intellectual challenges Allen wanted were really there.