It’s impossible for anyone not to love some aspect of The Theory of Everything, a beautiful and tender film about Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne) in his formative years as one of the greatest intellectuals of our time, and his relationship with his first wife, Jane Wilde (Felicity Jones). It’s a biopic, it’s a love story, it’s a challenged genius drama, it’s a British period piece. And it’s also a tour de force for actor Eddie Redmayne (Les Miserables), who will doubtless be nominated for an Academy Award for his amazing portrayal of Hawking.

Aptly directed by James Marsh (Man on a Wire), The Theory of Everything was a tricky film to make, in that Wilde, Hawking and their children are still very much alive. It’s based on Wilde’s book, “Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen,” and chronicles their relationship, which started at Cambridge where they were both students, and goes on to tell of his dire diagnosis of two more years of life, and how they battled together to keep him alive and functioning at the highest level possible as he does a revolutionary study of the subject of time, something he seems to have precious little of.

If you don’t already know the story, I won’t spoil it for you. But suffice it to say it does not have a fairytale ending. After you’ve seen the movie, be sure to look up Hawking and find out what happened to him after the point where the film leaves off.

The Theory of Everything is one of those rare films that not only entertains you, but educates and moves you. You’ll leave the theater with the satisfaction of having learned something, and more importantly, having felt something. If that’s not the price of admission, I don’t know what is.

PG 13

2 Hours 3 Minutes