, directed by Jon Amiel, on UK release from 25 September
THE pain Charles Darwin felt when his beloved 10-year-old daughter died is well known. Annie was his favourite, and her death stripped him of the last vestiges of his Christian belief. Watching this film about Darwin’s life, I felt his pain – increasingly so, as I sat through nearly 2 hours of dead Annie’s ghost repeatedly appearing before him and admonishing him. “Don’t you dare give up on your book, Daddy,” it says, wagging its finger when Darwin is agonising about the reception his work will get. I desperately didn’t want to give up on this film, but well before the end it had lost me.
Starting in Tierra del Fuego on the voyage of the Beagle, Paul Bettany’s interpretation of Darwin is charismatic and amiable. No stranger to this sort of role, Bettany played 18th-century ship’s surgeon and proto-Darwin Stephen Maturin in Master and Commander. Darwin’s wife, Emma, is played by Jennifer Connelly, who was cast as the wife of another scientific genius, John Nash, in A Beautiful Mind.
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It’s wonderful to see Darwin played as a young man and a father – passionate, mischievous and inspiring, brought to life as a man rather than the name behind the idea, or the bearded old man of those black-and-white photos. And the touching scene when he meets Jenny the orang-utan – the first time he’d come face to face with a great ape – is beautifully done, and brilliantly captures the humanity of the other apes.
The problem with the film is the conceit of illustrating the impact of Annie’s death on Darwin by having her materialise and interact with him in visions. It is unsubtle and irritating, and makes for a cartoon account of the writing of On the Origin of Species which seems to assume the audience will not be able to appreciate the anguish Darwin went through unless it is spelled out in gigantic, sentimental letters by a pretty ghost.
I put this more tactfully to Randal Keynes, Darwin’s great-great-grandson, who wrote Annie’s Box, an account of Darwin’s family life and his relationship with Annie in particular, and who has a writing credit on this movie. “The film is based on the knowledge that Darwin lived with the memory of his daughter all his life,” Keynes says. “He was a man of passion, and people have missed that… Putting the ghost in can be regarded as the film-producer’s licence to tell the story.”
I’m glad that Darwin’s life has made it to the big screen. Yet even before Annie has died, the film shows its apparent disdain for the audience’s ability to understand the subject matter. In case anyone is in doubt about Darwin’s work, the local vicar tells him “You’re pitting science against God!” This is a simplistic guide to why some people see a conflict between natural selection and religion. A film version of the development of “the single best idea anyone has ever had” deserves exceptional treatment. If only this had provided it.