Share this
Twitter
Myspace
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
Slashdot
Furl
Yahoo
Technorati
Newsvine
Facebook
Export PDF
Print
E-mail
Tags
BY NANCY R. MANDELL
NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM
MOVIE REVIEW
Charles Darwin, as portrayed by British actor Paul Bettany in the new film "Creation," is a serious man. Not "A Serious Man" like the title character of the Coen Brothers' 2009 movie who found himself beaten and battered by forces beyond his control — sometimes to hilarious effect. No, we're talking about a really serious man, a man whose brilliant scientific mind is so at war with the religious beliefs of his time and place (mid-19th century England) that he himself fears the claims of his critics (and some supporters) that he is killing God; a man whose reluctance to be responsible for destroying the belief system we call creationism — a belief deeply embraced by his beloved wife, no less — propels him into a nearly disastrous bout of writer's block; a man driven either to (graphically conveyed) physical illness or severe hypochondria by inner conflicts that include guilt over the loss of a favorite child. Oy vey! This is a serious man.
So while "Creation" — directed by Jon Amiel from a script by John Collee and based on the book Annie's Box, a biography of the ground-breaking naturalist by his great grandson Randal Keynes — is beautiful to look at and not without some pleasures including the acting, it lacks the drama that many of us associate with Darwin's theories through stage and screen productions of "Inherit the Wind," the McCarthy-era play inspired by the 1925 Scopes "Monkey" Trial. To put it bluntly, Charles Darwin was no Clarence Darrow!"Creation" reunites Bettany with his wife, actress Jennifer Connelly who plays Darwin's wife and first cousin, Emma Wedgewood. This genetic bond seems underplayed considering Darwin's association with the theories of evolution and natural selection. But then, history tells us they only lost three children out of 10 — hardly remarkable in the 1850s.
It is the loss of one of those children — their eldest daughter Annie at the age of 10 — that provides the filmmakers with their most dramatic device. Shades of "A Beautiful Mind," in which Bettany played mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr.'s (Russell Crowe) imaginary friend, here Bettany holds eloquent conversations with Annie that are either flashbacks or hallucinations - or possibly, both. Martha West, a young British actress who actually turned 10 during the filming, makes her screen debut as the precocious and inquisitive Annie. Unfortunately, Darwin's scenes with her — including some delightful flashbacks to his excursion with the HMS Beagle — are among very few episodes that display the warmth and paternal affection we are supposed to take for granted. In fact, for me the film's most touching conceit is that Annie usually appears in the checked dress she wore during the film's opening scene, where she is sitting for a formal photograph. You can see the framed picture on Darwin's desk throughout the movie, and a reproduction of it — checked dress and all — appears in Wikipedia's section about Darwin's family.
According to publicity handouts, director Amiel ("The Singing Detective," "Entrapment") set out to make a film that "would not automatically be classed as a period film." In that respect, alas, Amiel fails. Okay, it is the "story of a man in turmoil that can be related to any period in time, including today." But the settings — interiors of the Darwin home in Kent and the surrounding countryside — are as evocative of Victorian England as any Masterpiece Theatre Classic. Photography Director Jess Hall inserts a couple of stunning time-lapse depictions of evolutionary stages and survival of the fittest. But they are eye-catching curiosities in an otherwise conventionally — though beautifully- photographed work.
A few character roles stand out despite being underutilized: Jeremy Northam as the local minister whose friendship Darwin abandons along with his religious faith; Toby Jones in an all-too-brief tour de force as gadfly Thomas Huxley; and Benedict Cumberbatch as Darwin's best friend, the botanist Joseph Hooker.
I've saved the most troubling casting decision for last, though it is the role, not the casting that troubles. As Darwin's wife Emma, the beautiful Connelly is a stoic, humorless centerpiece. Her religiosity is supposed to provide the story's major conflict — Darwin's reluctance to publish On the Origin of Species-By Means of Natural Selection-for fear of either destroying her faith in him or in God (and by extension his society's beliefs). The conflict may be intellectual, but it is hardly dramatic. And finally, the idea that Darwin gave Emma the power to burn the manuscript rather than see it published, is ludicrous.
In short, if you're interested in Darwin's life and enjoy the period, this film is for you. Certainly, most of us know little about the man who brought evolution to light. Unfortunately, if this rendition bears any truth, he probably wasn't much fun to be around.
"Creation" opened Jan. 22 in New York City.
