2. Felicity Jones - The Theory Of Everything
If there were a book entitled, "How To Be Nominated For An Academy Award When You're An Actor", the first chapter would be called "Play A Famous Person (Or Someone Related To Them)". The history of the Academy Awards is filled with both acting nominees and winners who either played a character based on a famous real life figure or a character who was important in the life of a famous real life figure. The Academy eats up performances in biopics like a fat man consumes pies in a state fair eating competition, except the Academy never seems to get full. Which brings us to Felicity Jones' performance in The Theory of Everything, one of the choice du jour biopics of this year's awards season. Jones plays Jane Hawking, the wife of famous theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the man who helped expand humanity's understanding of black holes. Stephen Hawking was tragically struck by ALS (more commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's Disease) while he was attending Cambridge, and the onset of the disease and the couple's courageous attempts to deal with its consequences is the central focus of The Theory of Everything. Jones gets to play the part of the burdened loving wife, but while it may be easy to pigeonhole the role in the "cliché" corner, Jones actually does a rather good job of fleshing out Jane Hawking as a full character. Jane's hardships go beyond those of the obvious physical inconveniences of Stephen's disease, as the man's extreme intelligence also makes him sarcastic and unpleasant at times. Their relationship is a complicated one and all the different emotions between husband and wife are brought to life by the subtle gestures and expressions in Jones' face. The Theory of Everything appears destined to be one of those films that receives a multitude of nominations from Academy in January, but goes home empty-handed come February. In fact, in terms of their chances at actually winning the Oscar, Rosamund Pike is probably more likely to win than Felicity Jones, but while some members of the Academy may be turned off from nominating Pike due to the film's harsh tone, almost all of the Academy will eat up Jones' turn in The Theory of Everything.
