Movie Review - 'Creation'

Creation Starring Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly Directed by Jon Amiel Rated PG-13

Charles Darwin did not write The Origin of Species in a flash of inspiration. He first hit on his idea of evolutionary theory over 20 years before he published the book that changed science forever. The delay had as much to do with reconciling his ideas with faith – his wife remained devout while Darwin could no longer justify anything said to be “God’s plan” – as it did fleshing out his ideas more fully. And on the way to reaching his great conclusion, the ramifications nearly killed Darwin's marriage and the man himself. Creation (funny name for a movie about the father of evolution) fills in some gaps in the scientist’s fossil record, charting Darwin (Paul Bettany) through the best and worst years of his life, which just so happened to coincide. The story really begins in the late 1830s, when Darwin began to piece together what is known as natural selection, based on fossils he collected and the wildlife he observed during his historic voyage on HMS Beagle. Although it took two decades to crystallize, that idea didn't change much: Species, over time, undergo changes. It can be as small as a flu virus mutating into a new strain or, Darwin speculated, there could be massive overhauls over longer periods, all of which are required for that species to survive. Darwin didn't claim that man came from apes, and in fact, in Origin of the Species he devotes only a dozen words to the concept, but what he did believe is that man shared distant ancestry with other primates. For some of us, that is an inflammatory belief. For others, it is not a controversial stance at all, as accepted as the Earth revolving around the sun. But in the 19th century, like that exact same concept 250 years earlier - for which Galileo was imprisoned by the Catholic Church and was not absolved of his "crime" until 1992 - natural selection was impossible to square with the teachings of the Bible. Nowhere was that more true than in Darwin's own home, where his wife (Bettany's real-life wife, Jennifer Connelly), supported her husband, as she was also a naturalist by education. However, she was also deeply religious and had serious misgivings about Darwin's radical new ideas. It may not be as dramatic as it's portrayed in the film, but there was certainly plenty of tension in the home for other reasons, including the scientist's exhaustion and illnesses and the loss of three of their children. A bit stuffy and not as singularly focused as it should be, Creation is competent and effective but not supremely engaging. Bettany is up to his usual standards but Connelly steals his thunder as Darwin’s long-suffering bride. Creation tries to balance the advancement of Darwin's theories with the disintegration of his life. It's hard to approach it any other way, but director Jon Amiel perhaps shoots his movie in the foot by leveling the playing field: Is it more important to know Darwin the husband and father, going through considerable turmoil, or to know Darwin, the revolutionary thinker?

Comments

[Orinn]

In the day and age where some people completely refuse even the possibility that evolution is real, we need more on the revolutionary thinker, not the sadness of the mans life.

[Kevin]

What's unfortunate is that people seem to think that Evolution and Faith form and impass, where I don't think one is necessary. If you study the type of literature the Old Testament is, I think it's perfectly possible that God could have used a mechanism like Evolution to bring us to the point we are at today. Evolution, like every other theory, has holes and can't prove 100% that certain beings came from others, but in 100 or so more years, this theory could be ironed out to show us so much more about the world around us. It's just sad that people have gone through life ignorant of the forces of this world just because they want to take the Bible literally, when in reality, the Bible - like all other pieces of literature from that period in history - wasn't meant to be taken 100% literally, but was meant to be read aloud to generations in hope of giving them fun stories to tell the tale of the God who created us, not to give us a perfect account of how it happened.

[Jason]

As a physics teacher, engineer in the nuclear power industry, and a religious Jew, there is no reason why faith and reason cannot co-exist. I can tell you absolutely that the creation story was never meant to be taken as 6 24 hour periods that culminated in the world exactly as it is now. It was meant to teach that God created the universe (and to teach the about the Sabbath, but that is for another time!) Just like there are religious people who take the creation story "literally", there are many scientists who take the a priori position that there can be no God. I think both positions are ridiculous.

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