Einstein and Eddington

Today's breakfast was a little bit of historical fiction involving these two gentlemen:

Arthur Eddington (David Tennant a.k.a. the tenth Doctor) and Albert Einstein (Andy Serkis a.k.a. Gollum.) The film is called Einstein and Eddington and portrays the two scientists in their respective communities during WWI, communicating by letters.

It's a quality film. It was intriguing in many ways, which is why I feel the film was a bit too short. The characters were left too shallow. I'm not saying the characters were shallow, oh no sir, not at all, but there were so many moments and events in the film that could have gone deeper and really dug into the pain and joy these men felt.


I recently saw a drama documentary about Vincent van Gogh, Van Gogh : Painted with words.
Van Gogh is played by Britain's it-man right now; Benedict Cumberbatch, and done so marvelously. I could go on and on about this film, but I'll leave it for later. See, the reason I mention this film now is because it has something Einstein and Eddington lacks: a thorough portrayal of the anxiety of an agonized man. The reason it doesn't have it I feel is the lack of time; the film was simply too short. Of course we see some painful moments but for me they left me wanting more. Dig a little deeper, hit a little harder... let that painful gaze last a while longer.

Like van Gogh in his life, both Einstein and Eddington were faced with contempt from their community. And there were moments in the film where Tennant and Serkis had their painful gazes, but these moments were too brief and were pushed aside to quickly get on with the rest of the film, and that's what's wrong with Einstein and Eddington: it's limited by the 90-minute frame of a TV movie.

 ...Aside from that, it's a great piece.

I leave you with the suffering eyes of van Gogh, as portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch.