Radioactive (Marie Curie Story)

You probably won’t admit it, but did you think Madame Marie Curie discovered Penicillin?  I did.  I knew she was a scientist, but not a physicist. I never would have said she had anything to do with the atomic bomb, but she did.  She, with assistance from her husband Pierre Curie, discovered two new elements in the late part of the 19^th Century – polonium and radium.

Radium being the main ingredient in radiation, the theory of “radioactivity” (a term Madame Curie coined) hence the title of the film, which is based on the graphic novel of the same name by Lauren Redniss.

In fact, much of Director Marjane Satrapi (“Persepolis”) film makes a point of connecting the dots between the positive and negative aspects of this discovery by taking us from Marie Curie’s time, to the future of cancer treatments, Hiroshima, Chernobyl and other nuclear experiment.

Another show of hands –  How many thought Marie Curie was French?  I did.  Not so, born Maria (not Marie) Salomea Skłodowska, raised in Poland.  Leaving for France in 1891 to continue studying physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the University of Paris, where she had a little more freedom to do so than in her native country.

“Radioactivity” begins in Paris, circa 1934, the 65-year-old Marie Curie (Rosamund Pike) collapses in her laboratory and is swiftly rushed to a hospital. As she’s being wheeled on a gurney, the film flashes back to when she first met the man who would be her partner in life, love, and science, Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). 

Like so many historical biopics, most recent example “Tesla” “Radioactivity” feels surface, too many montages to depict passage of time, too glossy. I’d really like to see a gritty movie about a notable person of history. One that’s intriguing and reflective of the person, not just marking beats of their life’s résumé. And one not so romanticized and glamorized. If you look at pictures of Marie & Pierre Curie, these are no nonsense, stern, unattractive people, why can’t we see that? Instead of putting a frowsy wig and some unflattering makeup on Pike to make her appear more dowdy. 

The movie shows they don’t have a proper laboratory, but from what I read, the real-life laboratory was little more than a barn. I wanna see that struggle to work scientific experiments in an atmosphere where you can’t even regulate temperature. 

Later, after her husband’s death, Marie is ostracized, xenophobia running rampant, along with anti-Semitism, even though, she wasn’t Jewish, and she begins an affair with a slightly younger man estranged from his wife. Again, this chapter in her life is glossed over.  She holds her head up high, pretending she can ignore it all.  This is where the movie should have dug in and dramatized what this would have done to her as a woman on her own, raising two daughters, and still trying to continue in her profession.

Near the end of the movie Anya Taylor-Joy plays Marie’s daughter Irène Joliot-Curie who goes on to win a Nobel Prize of her own. Fleshing out this mother/daughter dynamic earlier in the film could also have given the movie some weight.

So, how long has it been since I’ve liked a movie?  Do you think my judgement is impaired by seeing all this stuff on the small screen?  And am I being particularly hard on female filmmakers?  I really hope not. I’ve always told myself; I’d never become one of those overly critical, hard to please film reviewers.

T&T @largeassmovieblogs rating: 2.5 outta 5