Though Benedict Cumberbatch technically beat him to the punch in 2004, it’s Eddie Redmayne who is garnering the best reviews of his career to date and awards chatter with his performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory Of Everything. You can see why that might be in the new trailer for the film.
Man On Wire's James Marsh is the director for this one, based on a script by Anthony McCarten. **Theory **kicks off with Hawking’s early life, from his first studies and his marriage to Jane Wilde (the terrific Felicity Jones) after meeting at Cambridge. When his world is rocked with the first diagnosis of Motor Neuron Disease, they pledge to stay together, even as Hawking throws himself into his work, studying the farthest reaches of time as he explores the origins of the universe.
While his health deteriorates, he and Jane fight the disease as a team, and he manages to complete his thesis. And, as the world has since learned, his debilitating disease was no match for the power of his intellect to keep working.
With Charlie Cox, Emily Watson, Simon McBurney and David Thewlis also in the cast, The Theory Of Everything got great reviews at the Toronto Film Festival and arrives in the US on November 7, but the UK will have to wait until January 1 for its turn.