When reading reviews I tend to skip both those awarding 1 star and 10 stars. So why am I risking the possibility of people like me not reading this review? The answer is simply that I believe 2 stars would be too many for this film.Although well made, it is full of misery, illness, death and more misery. I also feel cheated as there is so little of Darwin's wonderful work.I had expected a film about the wonders of nature, in fact this is all about the misery of bereavement.

This movie tells the story of a man and his wife struggling to cope with the death of their beloved and wonderful daughter Anne in 19th century England. This quiet, warm and rich film is filled with the details of their home and family life, their relationship ups and downs, their illnesses, their children, their emotional and intellectual life...and their grief. At times it becomes very moving.This movie is beautifully acted. It is riveting from the very start. The last biography I've seen to achieve this level of sophistication was "The Iron Lady".It happens that this is also the true story of Charles Darwin and his wife Emma in the years prior to the publication of "Origin of the Species". The film documents his epic struggle to overcome his physical and psychological turmoil to finish his manuscript.In addition to all this, we're treated to steady but measured doses of the content and background of his theories. You come away from this movie with a deep understanding of the background and social impact of his theory, one of the most important ideas in history. It seems Darwin knew from the start what his theories meant, and it shook him to the core. And of course, behind every great man....I'm thinking this movie is worth about 8.5. As often seems to happen, I don't understand the lower score on IMDb.

This is a biographical film about Darwin (Paul Bettany) and family , focusing mainly his period when he wrote ¨Origin of species¨ and his suffering when his daughter died . As English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his children , revolutionary theories on evolution and the relationship with religious wife , whose faith contradicts his work . The Darwins had ten children together : two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood (Jennifer Connelly) . He examined this topic in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of crossing amongst many organisms .This interesting film concerns about a global revolution took place within the confines of a small English mansion . Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly portray perfectly husband and wife in the movie, and are actually married in real life. The picture relies heavily on the relationship between Charles Darwin and his daughter Annie ,both of whom were ills , in fact , Anne Elizabeth "Annie" Darwin's death (2nd March, 1841 - 23rd April, 1851) may have been caused by scarlet fever, or tuberculosis as some may believe and it is often thought that apart from his illnesses, Darwin may too have had Ménière's disease. As Darwin was devastated when his daughter Annie died , issue well shown in the movie . It also includes some flashbacks about his voyages aboard HMS Beagle .The film contains a colorful cinematography by Jess Hall and evocative musical score by Christopher Young . The motion picture was well directed by Jon Amiel (Entrampment , The core , Copycat , Sommersby) The flick is based on real events , dealing with life , investigations and writings , these are the followings : Darwin established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.Darwin's wide reading Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population, he noted its assertion that human "population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio", a geometric progression so that population soon exceeds food supply in what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. On the Origin of Species proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859 , overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species .Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life . Studies at the University of Cambridge encouraged his passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported the publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author . Darwin was critical of the Bible as history, and wondered why all religions should not be equally valid. In the next few years, while intensively speculating on geology and transmutation of species, he gave much thought to religion and openly discussed this with his wife Emma, whose beliefs also came from intensive study and questioning . He considered it "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist" and, though reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he wrote that "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. –I think that generally , an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind- . The Darwins had ten children . Despite his fears, most of the surviving children and many of their descendants went on to have distinguished careers .

There are a few flashbacks to the Beagle and a couple of quotes of the more flowery passages of "The Origin of Species," but for the most part, certainly as far as screen time is concerned, it's the story of Charles Darwin (Bettany) and his wife Emma (Connelly) struggling to come to terms with the illness and death of Bettany's favorite daughter, the 10-year-old Anna (West).There are repeated lengthy scenes of both Bettany and West taking various medicines and other cures, such as hydrotherapy and having your water drawn from you. There is a discussion of whether West should be bled. In fact, what we learn about medical practice circa 1850 is at least as interesting as what we learn about natural selection and evolution. There is a scene involving Bettany and his hydrotherapist in which the hydrotherapist, drawing on de Quincy's "Confessions of an Opium Eater," tells Bettany that a person can hold certain beliefs without being aware of them, and that these stifled ideas can cause warts and fainting spells. Bettany seems interested and willing to discuss the possibility but it goes no farther. Freud wasn't born yet, quite, but he and Breuer would have called this the beginning of "the talking cure." There is a running problem with theology too. Will Bettany "destroy God?" Given today's Zeitgeist, it turns out to have been a pretty silly question. Some of us are still trying to shed ourselves of evolution. But Bettany's problem is personal as well. Why did his beloved daughter Annie die? His minister friend can only assure him that God moves in mysterious ways. Man, is he right about that! There are some gruesome moments when we see part of a dead cow gobbled up by maggots, the maggots eaten by a bird, and the bird's offspring eaten by maggots. It's all in fast motion but revolting nonetheless. I suppose it's necessary to spell out the "web of life" business, but the maggots screech while they go about their business and sticky, gloppy sounds accompany them, all of which adds to the yuk factor without telling us a thing.The movie collapses in the last third. It's all about the estrangement of Bettany from Connolly. They don't sleep together. They don't even speak. Finally, in the grand climax, Bettany confronts Connolly and accuses her of blaming him for the death of Annie. Connolly begins to tear up and confesses that she blames HERSELF for the death of her daughter. (Sob.) Bettany's involvement in the scientific community of his day is given short shrift. Thomas Huxley, known as "Darwin's Bulldog", shows up for a minute or two in the form of an angry gnome, Toby Jones, who browbeats the hero. There is the 20-page letter from A. R. Wallace who was studying beetles in Southeast Asia and promptly came up with the idea of evolution and natural selection, while back in England Bettany fretted for twenty years over his manuscript, too sick and scared to finish and publish it. Wallace gave him the necessary kick in the pants.The historical reality is exciting. The movie is kind of dull. It panders to fans of soap opera. And it cheats because, for all the talk of unconscious motives and whatnot, the misunderstanding that separates Bettany and his wife is cleared up with a bit of frank talk in two minutes. There are a couple of lighter moments, near the beginning, some nice location shooting and attention to period detail.