If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Benedict Cumberbatch as Stephen Hawking is galvanised to take meaning of his life when he is diagnosed with Motor Neuron Disease as a student at Cambridge University. He is 21 and in love with a girl called Jane.The love story is the least interesting part of this film. It is the coming together of the disparate strands of this film which generates excitement in this drama. Hawking studying for his doctorate rejects Sir Fred Hoyle's solid state theory that the universe has always existed and always will. Inspired by the work of Roger Penrose and the thought of Einstein he develops the big bang theory.Intercut with Hawking's life is a television interview set in 1978 with Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson, just before they go to collect their Nobel prize for Physics. We later find out that their earlier discovery provides an important link to Hawking's theory.

It is 1978, and two men are waiting to collect their Noble Prize in Physics in Sweden. Arno Penzias (Michael Brandon) and Robert Wilson (Tom Hodgkins) were preparing to give a television interview before they are due to collect their prize. The interview with the journalist (Christian Rubeck) would be about how a hissing sound they discovered inside a huge satellite receiver won them the Nobel Prize.It would intercut with a seemingly unrelated event from 15 years before in 1963 in England where Stephen Hawking (Benedict Cumberbatch) was celebrating his 21st birthday. He was actually watching Fred Hoyle (Peter Firth) talking about his steady state theory on television, before he went into another room where his birthday party was held in his house after the programme ended. He was delighted to see the girl he had met from another party Jane Wilde (Lisa Dillon) in the room. They would later go out to the back garden and discuss about the sky while lying down. But when Stephen tried to get up later on, he could not do so. Jane had initially thought Stephen was joking with her before she became worried and went to get help.Stephen would come to find himself being put through a series of tests at the hospital's operating theatre. The following day, as the nurse was moving his pillow causing him to lean forward, Stephen noticed a young boy across him where he would learn the boy was 12 years of age and had leukemia. When Stephen woke up the next day, the boy was no longer there as he learned that the boy had died the night before. Stephen would run into his doctor who tells him he has Motor Neuron Disease, which would cause anxiety all around and even in the family for his parents Frank (Adam Godley) and Isobel (Phoebe Nicholls).Later in the same year, Stephen would be studying at Trinity Hall at Cambridge where he would begin his first year as a doctoral student where he would be tutored under Dennis Sciama (John Sessions). It was also when he would come to publicly challenge Hoyle on his steady state theory with his student Jayant Narlikar (Rohan Siva) which would lead to what he come to produce in his dissertation as partly inspired by what another professor Roger Penrose (Tom Ward) had taught.Those who has a deep interest in science will take an interest in this, especially for what the real Stephen Hawking would come to be known. The average audience will not be able to understand much of the concepts as explained in the television movie as it will look abstract to the. Thus for the average audience, they may not be able to understand why there are times the scenes of showing Hawking during his Cambridge days intercuts with the television interview Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson was doing, even if it would be explained towards the ending on the screen on what the two men in real life would receive the Nobel Prize in Physics for.But for everyone else, it is a reminder of the real Stephen Hawking's early path to his scientific greatness as he would come to challenge Fred Hoyle on what he had proposed, or as Hawking said in the television movie, "We are very very small. But we are profoundly capable of very very big things."

This is one of those movies that can wake you up and make you wonder what you've achieved with your life so far.It's one of the best performances of the year, the sort of performance that is the actors were American and got the right publicity would have most likely landed them an Oscar. Given the subject I was expecting cringe worthy moments in the film, or at least overly sentimental, but Cumberbatchs' performance as a young Hawking just finding out what his symptoms mean is really something else. This isn't a movie for somebody that is looking for a comedy but I think that you should watch it if you are interested in either the life of Stephen Hawking or just to see a film that is different than the mainstream. It's definitely worth watching!

This drama concerns the early days in the life of Professor Stephen Hawkings. It tells the story of how he battles against MND and the mind set of famous Astronomer Fred Hoyles. It also tells of his relationship with soon to be first wife Jane and of the help given to him by Roger Penrose. Intersected within the story are snippets of Nobel prize winners Arno Penzias and Bob Wilson who's discovery of background radiation gave Stephen the "fossil" he would need to back up his theory.Well written with good performances from the principle characters and set amongst the beautiful background of Cambridge Hawking is a surprisingly enjoyable hour and half.Although viewers not familiar with Hawkings or his work may find parts of the story a bit dull or confusing at times, ultimately it's an inspirational story (even with the artistic liberties) and a first class piece of drama.