Sex, lies and physics
LOS ANGELES The unparalleled brilliance and puckish wit? Check. The trademark wild mop of hair? Check. The marital infidelity and freewheeling sex?
Yes, check again for Albert Einstein, who in National Geographic’s miniseries Genius comes across as a fullblooded figure who lived by his own rules, both scientific and domestic.
The 10-part series, starring Oscar-winning Geoffrey Rush (Shine) as the mature physicist and Johnny Flynn (Lovesick) as the budding one, also places Einstein in a 20th-century world engulfed by political chaos.
Genius (debuting Tuesday) is both entertaining and intelligent, as befits a drama that’s based on Walter Isaacson’s 2007 biography, Einstein: His Life and Universe.
Also credit Ron Howard, who brought another complex scientist to the screen in A Beautiful Mind, the 2001 Academy Award-winning film about mathematician John Nash. There are some Mind-type cinematic flourishes in Genius, restrained special effects that provide a visual sense of Einstein’s thinking and the universe as he sees it and helpful for the science-challenged.
But the series opens with Rush’s Einstein and a young woman in the throes of passion (intercut, unnervingly, with an assassination that foretells of the upheaval ahead for him and the world).
It was a deliberate choice, said Howard, who directed Episode 1 and is among the series’ executive producers that include Brian Grazer and Gigi Pritzer. Noah Pink and Ken Biller are the screenwriters.
“Not only did it (the scene) appeal to us dramatically, but it also fulfilled the desire to announce to audiences right away that we weren’t approaching it in an entirely straightforward, traditional and academic way,” Howard said. “We were looking for the drama in the story and willing to deal with Einstein, warts and all.”
Genius hopscotches through time as it follows Einstein flailing as a student; an imperfect husband and parent; a Jew clashing with the German scientific establishment; and as the conflicted father of the atomic age.
Rush said he was more familiar with aspects of Einstein’s world-changing theory of relativity than with the man himself, a distant figure often reduced to a wild-haired caricature.
Howard wants viewers to appreciate the courage it took the trail-blazing Einstein to pursue his ideas against fierce opposition and, despite his own sometimes “less than noble” personal behaviour, become a voice for shared humanity.
“There’s a kind of courage required for Einstein to have given us everything he gave us, in addition to the transformative work in physics,” Howard said.