Film Review's

'Creation'

19th century naturalist Charles Darwin (Paul Bettany) battles with both internal and external demons as he decides if his world changing theories on evolution should be published. Discouraged by his devoutly religious wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly) and haunted by the spirit of his deceased daughter Annie (Martha West) his life get's torn between the pressure of his work and the established beliefs of those around him.

This original take on the still widely debated studies of 'the bearded one' based on ‘Annie’s Box’ by Randall Keynes is certainly ambitious, with the existential theory 'On The Origin Of Species' now firmly held as perhaps the most radical and important idea of human thought.

This is a low-key, slow burning but insightful look into the big question, cleverly played out on the effect it has on the very small. In this case the small being the intimate life of Charles and his family during his writing. For every new discovery, each new idea proven, his ever present doubt would bring itself to the forefront as Darwin's uncertainty on if what he was pursuing was necessarily a good thing. Could science kill god? Without religion, at least organized religion, would society fall apart or would faith remain strong? So Darwin was somewhat of a tortured soul and largely down to Bettany's strong performance you get an acute sense of the mental tug-of-war he plays and the anguish he feels over each new chapter.

The film skips between two timeframes, one as a young father who enjoys telling stories to his beloved daughter Annie and in another, an older guilt stricken man who blames himself for her death and with whom he continues to speak - through ghostly visits or desperate imagination - as he continues his writing. Thankfully director Jon Amiel never labels the visits with a supernatural tag, choosing instead to play it fairly straight through a series of psychological breakdowns, most of which work well apart from the odd nightmarish dream sequence which feels a tad over the top for a period piece.

There are more than a few moments that drag, but for every yawn there is a tear waiting to be shed. Flashbacks which hint at Darwin’s journey of discovery across the South Seas contain both exposition and a light touch and scenes involving the first captive Orangutan being brought to the UK are heartwarming and continuously mirror the real and imagined relationship with Annie which works well.

It may seem reductive to deal with such material in the way 'Creation' does, but it goes a long way to humanize the relatively unknown man behind the theory.

Both the leads offer fine performances as does West and a small but memorable turn from Toby Jones, and it must have been hard for real life husband and wife Bettany and Connelly to keep there off-screen relationship beneath the characters during more heated scenes as Bettany makes a understanding foil to Connelly's fragile Emma.

Overall the films does offer more than the sum of all it's parts and will no doubt be a firm favorite come award's season, but it's not as daring as perhaps it could have been, never quite reaching the heights of it's source material.

***