We are already more than half way through ‘Charles Darwin is Rad’ year, and so a film about his life was inevitable. Real life husband and wife duo Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connolly take up the roles of Charles and Emma Darwin in an enjoyable and heart-wrenching tale that doesn’t quite go where you want it to.
Creation flip-flops between two time periods, before and after the death of Darwin’s daughter Anne when she was just ten. If you had been hoping for a daring and exciting transposition of Darwin’s theories to the big screen, you are out of luck. The script here is based on the book Annie’s Box which was a biography written after a box of keepsakes and writings made after Anne’s death was discovered at the turn of the millennium. As such the focus is purely on Darwin’s relationship with his children, the stories he tells them, and how Anne’s death caused an almost fatal rift between his wife, his work and his beliefs.
The older, unstable Darwin who is beginning work on his masterpiece ‘On the Origin of Species’ often has conversations with a manifestation of his dead daughter. Cliché as that may sound it is at least effective in presenting the mental anguish which translated itself into physical illness and wracked Darwin as he attempted to finish his revolutionary work. This story also allows the fallible, fragile humanity of Darwin’s character to shine through. His blind belief that the illogical and violent hydrotherapy sessions both he and his dying daughter undergo will have healing effects gives both Darwin and the audience insight into the nature of belief itself. In time the anger and helpless regret which both he and his wife feel after Anne’s death make them distant from one another. It is only by returning to her place of death and confronting it that Darwin is able to get himself together and finish the book.
There are occasional flashbacks to Darwin’s glory days aboard the Beagle, but these are few and far between, initiated only when Darwin is telling his children a bedtime story. These are the most vital and enjoyable portions of the film. The rest verges on the morbid, and as the inevitable death of Anne approaches, despair reigns too freely. It is then slightly odd that the film attempts to counterpoint Darwin’s self-destructive journey with moments of transcendent joy at the awe-inspiring beauty and brutality of the natural world. Flashes of how Darwin’s mind worked and the theories it produced are interestingly shot and well put together. However, they are far too infrequent and incidental for my liking. I suppose if I had wanted to see more of Darwin’s theories in action on screen I should have watched a documentary.
Overall Creation is an enjoyable if very safe period film that won’t offend those who disregard Darwin’s research or make anyone question their beliefs. The main issue is that it could well have been a BBC drama series rather than a feature film, and very much fees like one at points. Were it not for the terrible accent of Jennifer Connolly you could forget completely that you are watching such a high profile work. Her inclusion is even more baffling given that no company has picked this up for distribution in the evolutionarily recalcitrant USA. Given that I saw Creation on the opening weekend in a screen with only six other viewers suggest that it won’t be hanging around for long if you fancy seeing it.
