麻豆传媒

by Stephen Finnigan premiered last night at the

Stricken genius (Image: Yang Lei/Xinhua/Eyevine)

There are very few biopics of scientists, and fewer still that can rely on their subject鈥檚 name alone. But Stephen Finnigan clearly felt no need for elaboration with his film about Stephen Hawking. The film coincides with the physicist鈥檚 autobiography, more modestly titled My Brief History 鈥� but again, it鈥檚 his name that dominates the book cover.

So how did Hawking come to be 鈥渢he world鈥檚 most famous scientist鈥�? His appeal rests on intertwined elements. He is the stricken genius whose intellect transcends his physicality. He is a bestselling author though he can barely talk, a frequent TV guest star though he can barely move. He is a cyborg whose humanity is inseparable from his machines, with a voice both utterly synthetic and brimming with personality. He is the cosmologist who would know the mind of God 鈥� and help the rest of us know it, too.

Yet for all Hawking鈥檚 luminosity, there鈥檚 much about him that remains mysterious. His communication is necessarily succinct and considered: he gives every impression of frankness, but there鈥檚 little scope for those off-the-cuff comments or dialogue that flesh out our notion of a person. His public persona is carefully crafted yet narrow: those outside his inner circle can only wonder about many aspects of his inner life.

Both Hawking and My Brief History promise to address the man behind the media, benching the science in favour of more conventional biography. Hawking鈥檚 contributions to cosmology are only fleetingly addressed in the film, and then mostly to illuminate his career rather than his ideas. There is more physics in his autobiography, but it is packed into a few, dense, final chapters.

Still, there are already plenty of ways to explore Hawking鈥檚 work, fewer to investigate his life. The book tells Hawking鈥檚 story in his own words, including details of his upbringing and formative years. His clarity, wit and determination are evident, his understatement and good humour occasionally moving. But it鈥檚 a terse, somewhat sparse read, lacking the elaboration that might offer real insight.

Finnigan鈥檚 film provides a more satisfying account. Besides the narration by Hawking himself, it makes good use of a camera, seemingly mounted on his wheelchair, to provide us with a near first-person perspective. Archive footage, reconstructions and interviews with those who know him best fill out the picture, weaving together the personal, medical and public threads of its subject鈥檚 complex life.

We get a sense of how these threads have sometimes become tangled and torn; for example, of how the simultaneously mounting pressures of his disability and fame contributed to the failure of his first marriage.

But as with all 鈥渁uthorised鈥� versions, there is a sense that some of the story is missing. We learn little, for example, about his 鈥渢empestuous鈥� second marriage. Nor do we hear much from Hawking鈥檚 three children, whose voices are noticeable by their absence. So the film is evidently not a complete picture of Hawking鈥檚 world, either.

Both film and book leave other questions unanswered, ranging from the profound to the venal. Will Hawking鈥檚 work really prove to have revolutionised our view of the universe? Did his disability truly liberate his mind to fly free? Is he really an extraordinary survivor, or would others have fared similarly with his access to assistive technology? Does he have enemies? How rich is he?

Most of these questions will remain unanswered (as some of them should). Best, then, just to accept the book as a prosaic account of Hawking鈥檚 life, and the film as a lyrical celebration of it. The closing sequence of Hawking is genuinely moving, cutting between his appearance in front of an ecstatic crowd at the opening of the 2012 Paralympic Games, an onstage lecture before an audience packed with admiring fans, and an intimate bonfire party at his Cambridge home.

We will never really know Hawking. But what we do know 鈥� that he achieved extraordinary success against extraordinary adversity 鈥� is quite enough.

This article will appear in print under the headline 鈥淏riefing for a life鈥�