By Rebekah Marin

For the past few years I’ve subjected myself to the holiday fiasco that is Black Friday, but this year I smartened up and skipped out on the bustling mall scene and stood in line at my favorite local movie theater instead. After watching the trailer for “The Theory of Everything” a few times during other trips to the movies, I knew I had to see it. I was enticed by the love story aspect of it, I’ll admit. I was in for a pretty big surprise (I feel like this is becoming a pattern) when the movie began depicting the life of Stephen Hawking and ended up being so much more than I expected.
The story starts at Cambridge University in the 1960’s when Stephen, played by Eddie Redmayne and Jane Wilde, played by Felicity Jones, spy each other from across the room at a party. Of course the two have opposite interests, with Hawking studying physics and Wilde studying the arts, but their love flourishes despite the differences. During the beginning stages of Hawking’s motor neuron disease he attempts to shut out all of his loved ones, including Jane, to cope with it the only way he could see fit, to solve “the theory of everything.”
When Jane confesses her love to Stephen she vows to fight the disease alongside him and his family. Hawking realizes that he has an amazing support system who’s willing to go to great feats to help him achieve his dreams, so he continues his work at Cambridge and beyond to become the legend we recognize him as today.
For some reason this movie struck a nerve with me. I was equally blown away by Hawking’s genius theories and the story of his marriage and fatherhood. As usual when it comes to watching people overcome incredible odds, I was empathetic and because of it, found myself a blubbery, crying, basket case at the end of the night who was in desperate need of a tissue…or five.