sildarmillion A movie based on how Charles Darwin wrote "The Origin of Species" would definitely be interesting to me. I know quite a bit about Darwin. I took an evolutionary biology class in college and the professor spent a lot of time lecturing about Darwin. But this movie isn't about his time on the Beagle, or the Galapagos Islands, or even about his pigeon breeding, although all of those come up (actually Darwin's finches never came up surprisingly). There are flashbacks to Darwin's travels and conversation about his observations about the variety of species, but those are all in the background.This story is first and foremost a family drama. And it's also a period piece. I really enjoy period pieces, by the way, especially ones set in this period. But the vast majority of those period pieces involve young unmarried men and women trying to find a spouse. The focus of this period piece is refreshingly different. It is about the relationship of a man with his family. Charles Darwin has a crumbling relationship with his wife and even his children. At the beginning we think this has everything to do with Darwin's struggle with his faith. The more he loses faith, the larger the gulf becomes between him and his family.But we gradually come to realize, that it's not really about his loss of faith. In fact, his failing relationship with his family, his failing health, and even his loss of faith stem from the loss of his eldest daughter, his favorite child. (She appears in flashbacks and hallucinations and is a marvelous character in her own right, especially for a character who is supposed to be dead.)The aspect of faith and religion were also handled well. There are people who are opposed to Darwin's work because it challenges their world view. There are those who hate religion and can't wait to be rid of it. And there are those who don't wish to upset the balance of the world, who view religion as the foundation of society, but at the same time, they are dedicated to learning the truth.I absolutely loved this movie. And the cast was fantastic. Lots of familiar faces like Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connelly, Jim Carter, Benedict Cumberbatch, Toby Jones, Jeremy Northam. (Just realized that the cast is full from MCU cast members, but of course this was before the MCU really took off.) It's not for everyone. I think this for those who happen to like a combination of period pieces and biographies of scientists.

leplatypus I have never understood why BBC drama movies are so depressing. Here if the main character is Darwin, the movie is more about the death of his daughter and the depressive state he got. The mourning of a child and psychotic state are not my best way to have a pleasant moment and personally, the watching of this movie was really hard for me. There is a few interesting dialogues about his evolution law and also an illustrative clip of nature at work but it doesn't change the tense and depressive mood of the movie. Jennifer is the perfect Victorian wife but it was great to see by moments that she was happy to play with her husband!

petarmatic These types of films are excellent! It is a shame they do not make them more often.I am really interested in Charles Darwin and his work. This film gave some insight in what he did and how he lived. It follows a very interesting period of his life, and a very interesting conflict he had between atheism and religion after his work was made public.Cinematography is great and plot is interesting. Costumes are excellent and acting is excellent as well.I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to study Charles Darwin and his work, as well to the general public.A very good film.

ma-cortes This is a biographical film about Darwin (Paul Bettany) and family , focusing mainly his period when he wrote ¨Origin of species¨ and his suffering when his daughter died . As English naturalist Charles Darwin struggles to find a balance between his children , revolutionary theories on evolution and the relationship with religious wife , whose faith contradicts his work . The Darwins had ten children together : two died in infancy, and Annie's death at the age of ten had a devastating effect on her parents. Charles was a devoted father and uncommonly attentive to his children. Whenever they fell ill, he feared that they might have inherited weaknesses from inbreeding due to the close family ties he shared with his wife and cousin, Emma Wedgwood (Jennifer Connelly) . He examined this topic in his writings, contrasting it with the advantages of crossing amongst many organisms .This interesting film concerns about a global revolution took place within the confines of a small English mansion . Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly portray perfectly husband and wife in the movie, and are actually married in real life. The picture relies heavily on the relationship between Charles Darwin and his daughter Annie ,both of whom were ills , in fact , Anne Elizabeth "Annie" Darwin's death (2nd March, 1841 - 23rd April, 1851) may have been caused by scarlet fever, or tuberculosis as some may believe and it is often thought that apart from his illnesses, Darwin may too have had Ménière's disease. As Darwin was devastated when his daughter Annie died , issue well shown in the movie . It also includes some flashbacks about his voyages aboard HMS Beagle .The film contains a colorful cinematography by Jess Hall and evocative musical score by Christopher Young . The motion picture was well directed by Jon Amiel (Entrampment , The core , Copycat , Sommersby) The flick is based on real events , dealing with life , investigations and writings , these are the followings : Darwin established that all species of life have descended over time from common ancestors, and in a joint publication with Alfred Russel Wallace introduced his scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection, in which the struggle for existence has a similar effect to the artificial selection involved in selective breeding.Darwin's wide reading Malthus's An Essay on the Principle of Population, he noted its assertion that human "population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio", a geometric progression so that population soon exceeds food supply in what is known as a Malthusian catastrophe. On the Origin of Species proved unexpectedly popular, with the entire stock of 1,250 copies oversubscribed when it went on sale to booksellers on 22 November 1859 , overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species .Darwin's scientific discovery is the unifying theory of the life sciences, explaining the diversity of life . Studies at the University of Cambridge encouraged his passion for natural science. His five-year voyage on HMS Beagle established him as an eminent geologist whose observations and theories supported the publication of his journal of the voyage made him famous as a popular author . Darwin was critical of the Bible as history, and wondered why all religions should not be equally valid. In the next few years, while intensively speculating on geology and transmutation of species, he gave much thought to religion and openly discussed this with his wife Emma, whose beliefs also came from intensive study and questioning . He considered it "absurd to doubt that a man might be an ardent theist and an evolutionist" and, though reticent about his religious views, in 1879 he wrote that "I have never been an atheist in the sense of denying the existence of a God. –I think that generally , an agnostic would be the most correct description of my state of mind- . The Darwins had ten children . Despite his fears, most of the surviving children and many of their descendants went on to have distinguished careers .