Creation

Charles Darwin means different things to different people. To some he’s responsible for the greatest scientific theory in history. Others blame him for the downfall of religion. Many just see him as a guy with an amazing beard.

So a film about Darwin’s life is a potentially tricky proposition; its focus decided by people’s very personal opinion of the man and his work. Based on the book Annie’s Box by Randal Keynes, Creation puts all its eggs firmly in the basket of Darwin’s personal life, examining his tense relationships with his children, friends and staunchly religious wife.

Paul Bettany’s Darwin is a sickly maverick devastated by a personal loss, who spends most of his screen time wracked by despair. As always with Bettany’s characters, Darwin is instantly engaging, if a little tedious in his inability to cope. And this feeling is furthered when he’s compared to his level-headed wife Emma (Jennifer Connelly).

Darwin’s troubles offer a platform through which Creation explores the repercussions of publishing his masterwork, The Origin Of Species. The film takes the opportunity to delve into his psyche, revealing the grief, anxiety and ill health that plagued Darwin and almost prevented his work from reaching completion.

As the plot plays out through a series of flashbacks, Creation offers both emotional depth and a generalised explanation of the science. And while it’s very much ‘A BBC Film’, Jon Amiel’s direction deviates into psychedelic representations of Darwin’s thoughts that pep up the narrative. The natural representation of the husband/wife dynamic also makes a welcome change from the usual stuttering and glancing we’ve come to associate with period dramas.

There is no doubt that Creation is an interpretation of the Darwin effect – lines such as, “You’ve just killed God!” (uttered by fellow scientist Thomas Huxley, played by Toby Jones) serve to ham-up rather than lay bare the real implications of his work. Therefore anyone looking to get a full Darwin retrospective should treat Creation as a small part of a very large whole.

For this reason, Creation will probably appeal more to the masses than the purists; a fact that the man himself would be unlikely to object to. And the film is arguably the closest anyone could come to sexing up the life of a nineteenth-century English naturalist. But with so much material to draw on it feels slightly disappointing that there’s no sense of awe or wonder when the credits roll. But if the sudden desire to go home and Wikipedia ‘Charles Darwin’ is a sign of anything, it’s that Creation does enough to get you thinking.

Ailsa Caine

Anticipation:

A big screen version of the life of Charles Darwin? Hardly the adaptation we’ve all been waiting for.

Enjoyment:

Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly and some fresh directorial ideas thrown into the mix.

In Retrospect:

An engaging and emotional look at the man behind the brains.