The juxtaposition of Hawking's physical deterioration & his growing intellect is what makes him such a captivating figure. This is curiously beautiful documentary uses tiny cinematography choices, subtle movements, & unique angles to capture how Hawking saw time & space: with curiosity & beauty. Yes, it's a bit dry, but not nearly as dry as it could've been thanks to some stellar direction & editing. The way he describes the experience of death by black hole makes me wish that is the way he could've gone. RIP.

Which came first? The chicken or the egg? Stephen Hawking is an astrophysicist and quantum mechanic and has contributed numerous works now seminal to theories on the origins of the universe. He is widely regarded a genius; he considers this to be balderdash. Hawking himself has said, "They needed somebody to fill the role model of disabled genius. At least I'm disabled." I hope this film didn't leave any hardcore physicist type behinds when it actually presented the story of Hawking as a person and not an educational lecture on the specifics of quantum mechanics; of course this was never the goal of the film. It's about Hawking. Not QM. The film is not a technical masterpiece: basic documentary techniques are used. Few to no frills. Talking heads, basic photograph slideshows, b-roll, and a tiny, tiny handful of mood shots. The filmmakers have called attention to the edits on the interviews by leaving a split second of blackspace between the cuts. I consider this a sign of respect to the audience's intelligence. (That comment might not make much sense unless you've cut interviews). The Philip Glass soundtrack is beautiful and perfect. It is, if anything, too minimal... but layering drama strings over the telling of these stories too much would probably be trite. It's not outside the realm of possibility, in my mind, that more soundtracking of the interviews might have been attempted and it was decided that it was cheapening the film. I kind of suspect--and this is completely reckless, baseless speculation; I could be completely wrong on this--his real question is not "how" or "when" did the universe begin... but "WHY" did the universe begin--that is, if it "began" at all. I might regret going out on that limb and have to retract the statement, but it's just this feeling I'm starting to get having familiarized myself with his works and now, thanks to this film, a glimpse of who he is as a person. To me, Hawking's true genius lies mostly in his ability to give the ideas of quantum mechanics to everyone. This film is amazing and uplifting, and Hawking is triumphant on many levels.

A very fine and intriguing documentary from Errol Morris about the life and work of physicist/celebrity Stephen Hawking, who revolutionized the way we think about the universe in his monumental book of the same name. The film is really divided into two stories, the life of Hawking as he struggles to overcome his paralysis, and the brilliant work he achieved in spite of his physical limitations. One gets the impression that had Hawking never became ill, he wouldn't have been as compelled to carry out the kind rigorous intellectual work that he of course did carry out, and (he himself notes that he was quite bored with life prior to his paralysis). Morris does a fine job with the material; the first half hour of the film suffers from a dry PBS feel, but the aesthetic and intellectual intensity takes off from there, the film never digresses into a mere sob story. Morris nearly always keeps the material more intellectually intriguing than it is uplifting and sentimental.

As a physicist, talk about blackholes and cosmology gets my heart racing. However I found this presentation too slow and not packed with enough information for the interested layman (who is most likely to see it). If you have more than a passing curiosity in this sort of stuff, go to the library and check out some books. You will find they explain current scientific cosmologies with far more detail while at the same time filling you with more of a sense of wonder than this movie does. Also to set the record straight: Hawking is NOT considered the "greatest mind" or the world's "smartest person" as commonly asserted even among the user reviews here at the IMDb. Hawking himself has commented that "It is rubbish. It is just media hype. They needed somebody to fill the role model of disabled genius. At least I'm disabled." To be fair, he is probably a genius but among history's greatest scientists, people like Einstein, Newton, Gauss, and many others easily are even more highly regarded. This is not to disrespect Hawking who is a undoubtedly a great scientist but rather not to disrespect others who have done even more than he has. Anyhow, see the movie if you are truly into science. But if not, I think it would be boring for you.