Who’s In It: Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martha West
The Basics: Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) is a man under pressure. For starters, he’s developing a scientific theory that will change the world as he knows it. On top of the fact that his life’s work could completely destroy the fabric of 19th century society and effectively “kill God,” his marriage to the uber-Christian Emma (Jennifer Connelly) is in shambles, his health is deteriorating for mysterious reasons, and his cronies (Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch) are urging him to publish a book -- a little essay called On the Origin of Species. Darwin’s greatest comfort is his favorite child, 10-year-old Annie (Martha West), who shares his curiosity for nature and listens rapt as he recounts his global research travels and tragic stories about cute little orangutans. Too bad Annie’s dead from scarlet fever and Darwin’s only hallucinating her presence, and that his physical and psychological afflictions are naturally selecting him towards an early grave.
What’s The Deal: Creation debuted last year at the Toronto Film Festival to mixed reviews, but don’t let the buzz fool you -- or the fact that conservative Christians really don’t want the theory of evolution to get any publicity. (Reality check, zealots: we come from monkeys. Get over it.) This biopic is at times laborious (what else do you expect from a story about a tortured science nerd trying to write a book?) if only because director Jon Amiel allows his cast space to fully live in emotions like grief, guilt, and discovery, most of all his star Paul Bettany. But Amiel also demonstrates a flair for visual poetry, balancing the restrained with inventive surreal touches that represent Darwin’s internal processes, whether using time lapse photography to evoke a character’s rumination on the life cycle of a baby bird or bringing Darwin’s many hallucinations and nightmares to lyrical life.
Why It’s Paul Bettany’s Movie: Creation is a biopic that seemingly exists to give Paul Bettany a major leading man role, rare for him after years of playing second fiddle to the likes of Heath Ledger (A Knight’s Tale), Russell Crowe (A Beautiful Mind, in which Crowe romanced Bettany’s future real-life wife, Jennifer Connelly), and Russell Crowe yet again (Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World). That’s why we endure scene after scene of Bettany obsessing over pigeon skeletons and poring over science notebooks, ignoring his surviving children and wife, getting doused with cure-all water treatments and deteriorating so much his hand shakes involuntarily – Bettany deserves his moment, darn it!
Who Should See It, Who Should Not: If your first thought upon reading this was, “Charles Darwin is the enemy of God!” then go see Legion instead, where Paul Bettany plays an angel protecting humans from, well, evil angels. If your first thought was, “Who the heck is Charles Darwin?” go see Tooth Fairy. If you’re looking for more advanced theories on the evolution of man into futuristic blue alien people, go see Avatar for the umpteenth time.
Or, You Can Get Just The Facts: Screenwriter John Collee takes more than a few creative leaps in blending fact with fiction, most dubiously in personalizing the private lives and conversations of the film’s characters. (To his credit, he leaves in some real talk, like when Darwin tells his wife that their daughter may have been susceptible to disease because they married as first cousins. Ewww.) For a less Hollywood take on the life of Charles Darwin, pick up the best-selling book on which Creation is based, Annie's Box: Charles Darwin, His Daughter and Human Evolution, written by Darwin’s great-great-grandson, Randal Keynes.