As it’s 200 years since Charles Darwin’s birth and 150 years since the first publication of On The Origin Of Species, it’s the perfect time for a biopic about the man and his theories. Creation is largely about Darwin’s struggles to write his most famous book, as well as his relationship with his wife, Emma (who was also his first cousin), while also flashing back to earlier times, such as Charles’ travels on the Beagle, where he first began to formulate his ideas on natural selection.
While Emma is a woman of faith, by the time he starts to write in earnest, Darwin has become an atheist, partly because of the tragic death of his daughter, Annie. Her demise has had a devastating impact on Darwin, who is now sickly and distant from his family, in contrast to the vigorous young man who went on epic voyages (he also has a tendency to converse with Annie’s ghost at times of great stress, although the film is unclear whether this is meant to be taken literally or metaphorically). Creation shows Darwin struggling with his theories, knowing the impact they could have, particularly the effect it might have on religion (it took about 15 years from Darwin first outlining his theories to his friend to publishing On The Origin Of Species, and even after publication he didn’t stop worrying, such as adding references to ‘The Creator’ in later editions).
The problem Creation comes up against is that it is essentially about a man writing a book and struggling with issues that are difficult to deal with in traditional story form. The movie makes a decent effort to do some interesting visual things to bring natural selection and some of the other issues to life, such as an extremely well done time-lapse life cycle, but most of the time it tries to add drama by falling back on the old biopic standard of family problems. Although Emma’s religious faith making her resistant to Charles printing his theories is important, much of the rest of the family angle just slows the film down or seems like a slightly melodramatic distraction, but Creation spends an awful lot of time on it.
It’s a shame, as there are all sorts of interesting debates and issues Darwin dealt with in writing his book, as well as in the reaction to its publication. However they are quite difficult to dramatise, particularly because by the time of the book’s release he was sickly and virtually house-bound, and therefore unable to take part in the debate in person. The film does try to deal with many of these issues, and get round Darwin’s incapacity by introducing Joseph Hooker (Benedict Cumberbatch) and Thomas Huxley (Toby Jones), the latter of whom dubbed himself ‘Darwin’s bulldog’ and vociferously defended his friend’s theories on natural selection, and was important to them taking root in the public imagination. When the film is dealing with these big ideas and Darwin’s anguish over the philosophical and social ramifications of his revolutionary evolutionary ideas, it’s pretty good, but it takes a dip each time it falls back into traditional family melodrama. (Interestingly, Darwin didn’t use the word evolution h
imself until the sixth and final edition of the book in 1972, while ‘survival of the fittest’ first appeared in the 1866 fifth edition, having been coined by Herbert Spencer in 1864).
Because of the facts of his life, making a really good biopic about Darwin is an tough task (although not impossible), with the result that this good looking but too safe movie is pleasant without being engrossing. Thankfully the acting is very good, with Paul Bettany on top form as Darwin, and although like so many real-life couples, he and Jennifer Connelly don’t generate the on-screen chemistry you’d expect, she nevertheless does an excellent job in a role that could have come off as a mere cipher in lesser hands. They and the rest of the cast help Creation hold its head above water, even if the film itself is good while not being great.
Overall Verdict: The difficulties of dramatising Darwin’s struggles mean that Creation is great when dealing with the big issues, but not so good when concentrating on the family melodrama.
Reviewer: Phil Caine
CLICK HERE to view the trailer for Creation
