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Creation
A psychological, heart-wrenching love story that provides a unique and inside look at Charles Darwin. Torn between faith and science, he struggles to finish his legendary book "On the Origin of Species," which goes on to become the foundation for evolutionary biology.
2009 · Directed by Jon Amiel · 108 min · Drama · History · Screenplay in the scene database · 1 frames
Tagline
Faith evolves.
Plot
British naturalist Charles Darwin is a young father who lives a quiet life in an idyllic village. He is a brilliant and deeply emotional man, devoted to his wife and children. Darwin is especially fond of his eldest daughter Annie, a precocious and inquisitive ten-year-old. He teaches her much about nature and science, including his theory of evolution, and tells her stories of his travels. Her favourite story, despite the sad ending, is about the young orangutan Jenny, who is brought from Borneo to the London Zoo, where she finally died of pneumonia in the arms of her keeper. Darwin is furious when he learns that the family clergyman has made Annie kneel on rock salt as punishment for contradicting him about dinosaurs, which she takes as having become extinct long ago. This contradicts their church's position that life is unchanging and that the Earth is very young -- Young Earth Creationism being a then-recent heresy taken as dogma by Seventh-day Adventists.
Having returned from his expedition in the Galapagos Islands 15 years earlier, Darwin is still trying to finish a manuscript about his findings, which will articulate his theory of evolution. The delay is caused by anxiety about his relationship with his devoutly religious wife, Emma, who fundamentally opposes his ideas, which pose a threat to established Anglican theology. Emma worries that she may go to heaven and he may not, separating them for eternity.
The film shows Annie, through flashbacks and Darwin's hallucinations, as a vibrant apparition who goads her father to address his fears and finish his big work. It is apparent that Annie has died, and that her death is a taboo subject between Darwin and Emma, as both feel intense blame for her death. As a result of the strained relations between Charles and Emma, they entirely stop having sex. Anguished, Darwin begins to suffer from a mysterious, fatiguing illness.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: John Collee
- Cinematography: Jess Hall
- Edited by: Melanie Oliver
- Music: Christopher Young
- Production design: Laurence Dorman
- Produced by: Pip Ayers, Jeremy Thomas, Nick O'Hagan
Cast
- Paul Bettany as Charles Darwin
- Jennifer Connelly as Emma Darwin
- Martha West as Anne Darwin
- Guy Henry as Technician
- Jeremy Northam as John Brodie-Innes
- Toby Jones as Thomas Henry Huxley
- Benedict Cumberbatch as Joseph Dalton Hooker
- Jim Carter as Parslow
- Robert Glenister as Dr. Holland
- Ian Mercer as Goodman
Production
- Country: United Kingdom
- Language: English
- Studios: BBC Film, HanWay Films, Recorded Picture Company, Ocean Pictures
- Themes: faith, biography, devoutness, author, evolution, naturalist, 19th century, darwin
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