15 Average Oscar Bait Films Elevated By Amazing Performances

Stephen Hawking was a very interesting man indeed and it was certainly exciting to see his life-story dramatized, but The Theory of Everything got the angle completely wrong. Rather than focusing on, you know, his incredible scientific achievement or his disability, it focused on his marriage of all things. And it didn't even represent that accurately either.

The Theory of Everything has its heart in the right place and it can be moving, but that's because it's led by two amazing performances from Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones.

Redmayne does do a great job as Hawking, even though it's arguable he shouldn't have won Best Actor that year. He's very moving in the first half of the film and does a note-perfect job of recreating the physical symptoms of Motor Neuron Disease in the second half, while Felicity Jones is similarly great as Jane Hawking, his first wife, and gives the film much of its heart.

The film ranks among the worst Best Picture nominees of the 2010s thanks to its scattershot script, but it still just about works thanks to the strength of the two leads.