10 “True” Movies That Glossed Over Major Controversies

8. The Theory Of Everything

The Lie: The film glosses over Stephen Hawking's split from his wife Jane. Earlier this year, Eddie Redmayne scooped the Best Actor prize at the Academy Awards for his impressive turn as iconic scientist Stephen Hawking in glitzy biopic The Theory of Everything. There's no doubt that Redmayne's performance, with its physically transformative nature and surprising degree of humour, was an excellent one, but the film itself was something of a fluffy watch, lacking in any criticism of its subject. The film's script was based upon Jane Hawking's 2007 book Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen, which reflects a brighter relationship between the former married couple. Had the film been based on Jane's earlier book, Music to Move the Stars, the film might've emerged considerably more critical of Redmayne's character. Throughout the 1980s, the relationship between the Hawkings was strained, culminating in 1990 when Hawking left the family home in order to marry nurse Elaine Mason, with whom he had grown close. It wasn't until Hawking and Mason divorced in 2006 that his relationship with Jane and his family was repaired. Given the inspirational, awards-baiting story that The Theory of Everything was trying to tell, there was very little room to showcase the more difficult, darker side of Hawking's personality. Given that Jane, played in the film by Felicity Jones, is essentially the second lead of the film, it was necessary for the plot to keep the Hawkings together or risk losing the emotional arc of the film.