Review:
This one means well, a kiss-of-death review if there ever was
one. Paul Bettany takes an earnest shot at playing Charles Darwin,
a 19th-century man obsessed with monkeys, the origin of the
species, the death of his favorite daughter and the disapproval of
his religious wife (Jennifer Connelly). In other words, director
Jon Amiel has reduced a crucial moment in science to a Lifetime
weepie about a workaholic who needs personal tragedy to wake him up
to his wife’s virtues. The fact that Bettany and Connelly are
married in real life adds surprisingly little zest. What
provocation there is comes in the still-­timely debate between
science and faith that sneaks in from the sidelines when the
tear-jerking momentarily abates.
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Rating: 2 Stars