The Theory of Everything
Focus Features | Release Date: November 7, 2014 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
71
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 47 Critic Reviews
Positive:
36
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleNov 13, 2014
Just in physical terms, Eddie Redmayne transformation’s into Stephen Hawking is something remarkable. Read full review
100
New York PostLou LumenickNov 6, 2014
Visually imaginative, The Theory of Everything is an unusually compelling true-life story about an extraordinary couple triumphing over adversity. It’s my favorite movie so far this year. Read full review
100
ObserverRex ReedNov 5, 2014
This is the extraordinary biopic about the fascinating, complex and inspirational example set by genius cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking. Read full review
91
HitfixGregory EllwoodSep 15, 2014
Many moviegoers may think they already know a good deal about Hawking’s achievements, but they would do themselves a disservice to miss out on Redmayne’s almost perfect performance. Read full review
90
Village VoiceStephanie ZacharekNov 4, 2014
The film is striking, at times even piercing, for the way it infiltrates some universal realities of marriage. Read full review
88
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsNov 20, 2014
A brainy bio that exerts a gravitational pull on the heartstrings. Read full review
88
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaNov 14, 2014
Redmayne should be getting a lot of notice for his performance; it's palpable, it's poignant. Jones, too, is terrific. And Marsh, who won the documentary Academy Award for his Philippe Petit Twin Towers caper Man on Wire, brings a keen artistry to The Theory of Everything. Read full review
88
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreNov 11, 2014
This delightful and inspiring drama succeeds the way Hawking has, even as he fails to deliver that “one theory” that explains “everything.” It’s reaching beyond your grasp, in life, in science and in film biographies, that achieves greatness. Read full review
88
Rolling StonePeter TraversNov 5, 2014
The Theory of Everything, referring to Hawking's dream of finding an equation to explain all existence, is riveting science, emotional provocation and one-of-a-kind love story all rolled into one triumphant film. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyChris NashawatyNov 7, 2014
I couldn't help wishing that The Theory of Everything had more theory. Hawking famously excels at explaining complicated thoughts with layman simplicity, but the film never translates the originality and depth of his ideas — or even what they are. Read full review
80
Total FilmKevin HarleyJan 9, 2015
A lovingly balanced biopic that fends off award-gobbling clichés. Smarts + heart = a winner: it’s a simple equation, but Marsh makes it add up. Read full review
80
EmpireHelen O'HaraDec 30, 2014
A compassionate and inspiring look at an extraordinary life, anchored by two of the best performances of the year. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzNov 13, 2014
The Theory of Everything breaks down simply, perhaps too much so: a great performance in a good movie. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranNov 6, 2014
Marsh makes the most of McCarten's effective script. There's a real energy to his filmmaking, the ability to be intelligently dramatic without overdoing things that is ideally suited to material that would be so easy to get wrong. Read full review
80
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternNov 6, 2014
James Marsh’s movie, which co-stars Felicity Jones as Jane Hawking, the celebrated physicist’s wife, is a biographical love story that doesn’t depend on science to shape the plot — it’s rich in emotional intelligence. Read full review
80
SlateDana StevensNov 6, 2014
Jones and Redmayne are both superb as a devoted but imperfect pair of headstrong people trying, and sometimes failing, to treat each other with care and respect. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfNov 5, 2014
At its best (which is often), director James Marsh’s affecting biopic of the cosmos-rattling astrophysicist Stephen Hawking plays deftly against schmaltz. Read full review
80
The GuardianCatherine ShoardSep 15, 2014
It's a film to leave you reeling but cheered, too. It's about battling love, as well as illness. A universal story, extracted from a unique one. Read full review
80
VarietyJustin ChangSep 15, 2014
What’s onscreen is less a cerebral experience than a stirring and bittersweet love story, inflected with tasteful good humor, that can’t help but recall earlier disability dramas like “My Left Foot” and “The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.” Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisNov 19, 2014
What takes The Theory of Everything into the cosmos is Redmayne’s extraordinary performance. The disciplined precision with which he progressively embodies Hawking’s failing body is nothing short of astonishing. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianMarc MohanNov 20, 2014
This movie about a great woman and a great man ends up merely good. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene RodriguezNov 20, 2014
Like "The King’s Speech" or "Shakespeare in Love," The Theory of Everything sometimes feels a bit too polished and precise, leaving no room for ambiguity and always staying easy to digest, like elegant pap. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrNov 13, 2014
The Theory of Everything, in other words, is Jane’s movie as much as it is Stephen’s, and while Eddie Redmayne’s performance deserves every bit of praise and statuary it will get, Felicity Jones has the subtler, less showy role to play and matches him frame for frame. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsNov 13, 2014
The movie's pretty light on matters of science. It works best as a study of human vulnerability and love's way with us all, and as such, a handsomely mounted, slightly hollow picture by the end becomes a very affecting one. Read full review
75
Washington PostAnn HornadayNov 13, 2014
It’s an exceptional film, not because of its protagonists’ impressive triumphs, but because it honors their struggle. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliNov 12, 2014
An unremarkable bio-pic about a remarkable man. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Simon HouptNov 6, 2014
Even if you were never the sort who cared what goes on behind others’ closed doors, the Hawkings’ drama is catnip. And if you’ll excuse the pun, you could say it was only a matter of time before Hollywood came calling. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia PuigNov 6, 2014
The film is involving, nimbly acted and smartly directed, though conventional in its narrative style. Read full review
75
The PlaylistNikola GrozdanovicSep 15, 2014
The film is a boilerplate biopic, but with stunning cinematography and a couple of fierce performances, The Theory of Everything is nothing if not an accomplished and emotional work of cinema. Read full review
70
TimeRichard CorlissNov 21, 2014
The film gives Jones (Oxford) a chance to take control of its emotional center, and she seizes it with spectacular subtlety. She proves that behind this Great Man movie is a woman – an actress – who’s every bit her man’s equal. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie FelperinSep 15, 2014
Facing the physical challenges of depicting Hawking’s disability, Redmayne pulls it off with enormous grace and endurance. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallNov 19, 2014
Well-acted and lovingly designed, Marsh's movie falls far short of the genius it attempts to celebrate. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerNov 7, 2014
Highly uneven, but at least it doesn’t glamorize Hawking’s life or turn it into a paean to endurance. Read full review
67
IndieWireEric KohnSep 15, 2014
No matter how much The Theory of Everything showcases the incredible process through which Hawking maintains a connection to the rest of the world, it falls short of burrowing inside his head. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperNov 13, 2014
This is a well-made, well-acted but unexceptional film about one of the most exceptional figures of the last half-century. Read full review
63
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireNov 7, 2014
It’s a biopic about one of the most brilliant people in the history of the planet, the renowned astrophysicist Stephen Hawking – a man famous for thinking in boldly innovative ways – yet his story is told in the safest and most conventional method imaginable. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNov 7, 2014
If The Theory of Everything cut as deeply as Redmayne's performance, it might be on the level of "My Left Foot." But there are so damn many problems, easy to ignore at first in the elation of watching Redmayne and the gossamer Felicity Jones as his future wife, Jane, but impossible to shake off in the last third. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottNov 6, 2014
Yes, The Theory of Everything has a different emphasis. But like so many cinematic lives of the famous, it loses track of the source of its subject’s fame. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJoe NeumaierNov 5, 2014
Rather than go for big ideas, the movie cozies up to small wonders. Instead of an ah-ha moment, we get a sigh of familiarity. Still, in this biopic about Hawking, there’s one explosion that blows your mind: Eddie Redmayne’s performance. Redmayne as Hawking, if the stars align, should be an Oscar lock. Read full review
60
The New YorkerDavid DenbyNov 3, 2014
The Theory of Everything makes a pass at the complexities of love, but what’s onscreen requires a bit more investigation. Read full review
60
CineVueBen NicholsonSep 15, 2014
With so many elements working on such a high plain, it is ultimately a shame that The Theory of Everything remains a formulaic biopic with a scope far narrower than its subject. Still, it broaches universal themes through the story of a man who studies the universe, and succeeds in being a life and love-affirming along the way. Read full review
60
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 15, 2014
It’s certainly Redmayne’s film, and his performance is everything you could ask for: completely convincing in its physicality, credible in its pain, and warmly but not crassly optimistic in its nearly constant good temper. Read full review
50
The DissolveScott TobiasNov 3, 2014
Despite a handsome production and two genuinely brilliant lead performances, The Theory Of Everything stumbles into virtually every pitfall that afflicts biopics about geniuses. Read full review
50
Slant MagazineEd GonzalezSep 10, 2014
Meticulous in its adherence to conventional narrative inducement, this biopic only offers a sanded-down and embossed vision of Stephen Hawking and Jane Wilde's 30-year marriage. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyNov 5, 2014
It takes Hawking getting out of his wheelchair — a sequence as tender as it is tasteless — for The Theory Of Everything to register as anything more than impersonal kitsch. It is the one ballsy moment in an otherwise thoroughly neutered movie. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottNov 27, 2014
And let's be honest: Hawking and Wilde's romance is lovely in its own way. But his scientific work? That's important. That's staggering. That's life-changing, not just for him, but for all of us. And The Theory of Everything? Despite that title, and despite those performances, it just doesn't feel like any of those things. Read full review
30
SalonAndrew O'HehirNov 6, 2014
Director James Marsh (already an Oscar winner for the documentary "Man on Wire") and screenwriter Anthony McCarten (adapting Jane Hawking's memoir) opt for the safe, pretty, and reassuring English period-piece choices the whole way through, as if deliberately underselling the fact that this is a story about two remarkable people facing extraordinary circumstances. Read full review
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