Release: 15th of July

Length: 108 minutes

Rating: PG (Mild Themes)

Jon Amiel's (Entrapment, The Core) latest film Creation adapts the true story of Charles Darwin’s quest to write the 1859 world-changing 'The Origin of Species'. From a script by established screenwriter John Collee (Happy Feet) the facts of the events that occurred were more or less correct, although the sanity stopped there. The film follows Darwin’s whirlwind of moods, ideas and philosophies to the point where I think even the film makers got confused, as shown by some loose ends that were inadequately tied up.

Off-screen husband and wife, Paul Bettany (The Da Vinci Code, Wimbledon) and Oscar-winning Jennifer Connelly (A Beautiful Mind, Blood Diamond) play Charles and Emma Darwin. Ironically they are cousins who married in the name of love, nuptials that definitely would not have been approved of by the latter theories of Mr Darwin! The story somewhat whimsically follows their family life where Emma looks after four of their surviving children (I believe in total the Darwin’s had ten children) and fends off the eccentrics of the time. Namely atheists, Emma pesters her husband about his work, which she doesn’t believe in due to her strong Christian faith.

Meanwhile, in between experiencing fierce hallucinations and performing bazaar experiments, such as finding the best chemicals to obtain a whole pigeon skeleton (which I don’t believe was all that instrumental in the eventual publication of his works). Charles spends his time with his eldest daughter Annie, who he uncomfortably favored over the rest of his children. Annie took a vested interest in the ideals of her father, much to his delight and her mother’s dismay, which in turn leads to a divide in the family.

When Annie becomes desperately ill, Charles takes her away from the family to receive specialist treatment in the township of Malvern, despite the fact that Emma is heavily pregnant with their next child. Literally days apart, both Annie and baby Charlie die, leaving Charles in no doubt that he is correct in his work, that God does not set a path for human beings. When self-blame starts to set in for the death of Annie and Charlie due to the closeness of their blood, Emma concedes that Charles must indeed be correct and encourages him to publish his works… and as they say, the rest is history.

It’s hard to critique the plot line itself seeing it is based on true events, but the erratic nature of story left me making assumptions for myself. Then when they were answered at a somewhat belated stage of the film, my confusion was heightened. I got to the point when I knew what was going to happen – the book was obviously published! – and I just wanted it to end.

There was some fantastic cinematography, displaying the harsh reality of nature and how quickly it changes. Even though the process of evolution seems like it takes a lifetime to see any small difference. I was entertained by many of the ironic aspects of the film, such as when Darwin died aged 73, despite the fact that he had lost all faith in God he was still buried a British hero, with full Christian honors at Westminster Abbey. But that was about it. I feel that in the case of this biopic, facts and entertainment are best kept separate.

Pass

Laura Macintosh