Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Theory of Everything

These days I watch more movies on a plane than anywhere else. One of those I saw yesterday on a trip to Boston was The Theory of Everything. Stephen Hawking has been a hero of mine from before I started at university doing my physics degree. I read a number of his papers and about him before I read his seminal book A Brief History Of Time. Several times.

Despite moving more into computing over the years I've continued to track physics, with books and papers by the likes of Penrose, Hawking and others, but obviously time gets in the way, which if you've read some of the same could be said to be quite ironic! Anyway, when I heard they were doing a film of Hawking's life I was a little nervous and decided it probably wasn't going to be something I'd watch. However, stuck on a 7 hour flight with not much else to do (laptop couldn't function in cattle-class due to person in front reclining) I decided to give it a go.

It's brilliant! Worth watching several times. The acting, the dialogue, the story, all come together. There's a sufficient mid of the human and physics to make to appeal to a wide audience. A singular film! (Sorry, a really bad pun!)

I also managed to watch The Imitation Game, which I think is probably just as good but for other reasons.

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