A brief history of living with a genius

STEPHEN Hawking turned 73 yesterday, five decades after he was diagnosed with a debilitating motor neuron disease and given only two years to live. He defied the odds and went on to become arguably the world's most famous living scientist, bestselling author of A Brief History of Time and now, subject of a tasty biopic that makes applied mathematics and theoretical physics palatable to the movie-going masses.

The Theory of Everything chronicles - with humour and sensitivity - Hawking's transformation from a young and active graduate student at Cambridge into a great mind trapped in a severely disabled body. The film is also an unconventional romance, detailing Hawking's marriage and life with his first wife Jane Wilde, a fellow Cambridge scholar who sacrificed a career to care for him despite the enormous challenges.

The film, directed by James Marsh, written by Anthony McCarten and based on Wilde's 2008 memoir about the relationship (which ended in divorce after 30 years), manages to avoid most of the usual cliches about people with disabilities and the triumph of the human spirit, thanks primarily to convincing, fully committed performances by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones in the primary roles.