6) The Theory of Everything

Grimy, sweaty, passionate, alive – James Marsh’s exploration of the complex romance between future physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) and Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones), the college girlfriend who would become his wife and supporter, flies in the face of expectation. Avoiding tropes of the biopic genre, The Theory of Everything is raw, emotional and at times so intimate in its portrayal of the Hawkings’ most unusual marriage, and of Stephen’s battle against motor neurone disease, that you feel as though you’re intruding.

It will be jarring for viewers to see Hawking, now a wheelchair-bound, robot-voiced intellectual, racing around the Oxford campus on his bike, hair whipped back by the wind and a broad grin across his face. It may also come as a shock to watch his courtship of the pretty, quiet Wilde blossom into all-consuming infatuation – to see them together is to watch two nerds, both intoxicated by the promise of life, becoming utterly intertwined, bodies and minds both.

Marsh captures the totality of their love, but also its hardships. Once Hawking is diagnosed, and the debilitating horrors of the disease become apparent, the marriage becomes more strained. Wilde’s love drives Hawking forward, pushing him to explore ideas that will eventually radicalize the scientific community, but as his star rises, the sacrifices she has made become painfully clear.

Redmayne and Jones deliver two of the year’s best performances, him capturing Hawking’s physical descent in a stunningly transformative and insightful performance as she does less showy but equally impressive work to communicate Wilde’s inner strength and conflicted heart.

Marsh and screenwriter Anthony McCarten know that the truth about people is never clean-cut, and it’s rarely written down in the history books. So, with the help of two Oscar-worthy performances from its leads, The Theory of Everything digs deeper. With aching humanity and unconcealed passion, it gets to the heart of not only the love and life of its two leads, but to the heart of love and life as universal subjects.