As a conventional biography enlivened by moments of dreamy magical realism, “Radioactive” makes for a compelling if dutifully rote wiki-film: Wearing a frizzled wig and a perpetual scowl, Pike once again dispels any natural vanity to bear down on a character who might be admirable, even heroic, but is rarely likable. And so it’s disappointing that she’s saddled with so much insipid, expository dialogue in Jack Thorne’s script, particularly in the film’s first half. Working Title Films, July 29, 2020 As Pierre accepts the Nobel in Stockholm in 1903, we see the Enola Gay preparing to drop the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. The ambition of this storytelling approach is intriguing—and the instinct to avoid a linear, paint-by-numbers narrative is certainly appreciated—but the result feels both scattered and painfully literal, and it saps the momentum Satrapi has built. After the death of her beloved husband, Marie Curie's commitment to science remains strong as she tries to explain previously unknown radioactive elements. Still, Marie’s fame did not save her from scandal. Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Curie would reinvent herself in Paris, which in the late 19th century was the center of a rapidly changing world. Radioactive review: Marie Curie biopic fizzes but doesn't spark ... Radioactive is a horror movie disguised as a biopic. 109 minutes. Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. ... Home Movies Movie Reviews… Eight years later, she won for chemistry, defying a scandal to pick up her award and remind the world that she merited a claim on history. The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. | Rating: 2/4 Satrapi’s autobiographical feature debut, Persepolis, in 2007 was partly about her immigrant experience, and for all that the film is cautiously respectful of Curie’s greatness, Satrapi shows the same warmth and empathy for Marie’s loneliness as a Polish woman who has to leave her homeland to find her future. But Satrapi finds time to show the destructive force of radium in the bombs that fell on Hiroshima in 1945 and the lives lost due to the 1986 nuclear disaster at Chernobyl. |. I wish that Satrapi had cut loose more boldly with her colors and hallucinatory visions. She shared the first in 1903, for discovering radium and polonium (named after her native country), with her French husband and fellow physicist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). She continues to pave the way for women to assert their intelligence and persist in gaining their rightful place in academia and research. The mists of time quickly clear and Marie is soon in Paris in 1893, where she bumps into the flirty, goateed Pierre (Sam Riley), who marvels that she is reading about microbiology. 'Midnight in Paris' Review: A Prom Night Doc to Remember, Steve Perry: ‘My Heart Bleeds Daily to Be in Front of People And to Sing for Them’, Tekashi 6ix9ine Transforms Into a ‘Supervillain’ in New Teaser for Showtime, ‘Rolling Stone’ Doc, The Best Home Speakers for Room-Filling Sound, How to Watch UFC 254 Online: Live Stream Khabib vs. Gaethje on ESPN+, Jay-Z Details New Cannabis Brand ‘Monogram’, ‘Tenet’ Review: Christopher Nolan’s Knockout Arrives Right on Time, ‘Bill & Ted Face the Music’ Review: Third Time’s a Most Excellent Charm, ‘Personal History of David Copperfield’ Review: Dickens, Served with a Side of Absurdity. One of the most celebrated scientists of the 20th century, Curie has long been lauded as a pioneer and is the only woman to win a Nobel twice, having first shared the prize for physics in 1903. Despite the slightly schmaltzy meet-cute that the film contrives between Marie and Pierre, Pike is good at the abrupt and maladroit side of Marie, which coexists with a romantic streak, and her initial (well-founded) suspicion that Pierre’s interest in her work may simply end in his taking it over, without her getting any of the credit. A flash-forward to a Nevada desert town that’s been set up for the express purpose of being flattened by a nuclear test blast is especially startling—a stark mess of melting plastic and smoldering ash. Still, “Radioactive” is consistently gorgeous to look at, the work of the great Anthony Dod Mantle, Danny Boyle’s usual cinematographer and an Oscar-winner for “Slumdog Millionaire.” Bold beams of white light stream into the Curies’ laboratory, providing a dramatic vibe to what could have been dry material. |, August 21, 2020 Even so, it pulls you in and sometimes knocks you sideways, most notably with the scenes illustrating the terrors that Curie’s discoveries led to, a reminder that this isn’t just about one life but many. biography, StudioCanal, More productive and illustrative of Satrapi’s strengths is a quick montage sequence that juxtaposes images of male colleagues shaking their heads at Marie (men, they do not like her) with visuals of Loïe Fuller (Drew Jacoby) twirling onstage (she, they like). All Critics (134) The scenes of Marie and Irene hauling X-ray machines to mobile field-hospitals during the first World War suggest a feminism in the blood that merits its own film. Don't have an account? Running time: 103 MIN. Watch on Amazon. Sam Riley does a decent job of playing Pierre; Anya Taylor-Joy is Marie’s equally brilliant scientist daughter Irène and Simon Russell Beale has a harrumphing cameo as the young Marie’s beetle-browed doctoral supervisor, professor Gabriel Lippmann, who refuses to let her have the facilities that she needs. The film really excels in showing the backbreaking effort that went into a pursuit often thought of as no more strenuous than hoisting a test tube over a Bunsen burner. as Professor Lippmann, Highlights from Ebert Symposium on Future of Movie Industry, Ebert Symposium 2020: Part 2 Streaming Today, October 22nd, 2020, Everlasting Arms: The Sustained Power of The Night of the Hunter. There’s little about Marie’s childhood, for instance, but you get a sense of her steeliness and her priorities from the way she briskly ignores gossip and coolly cares for her daughters. It’s a strained meet cute, but the director Marjane Satrapi has more than romance in mind, and you’re soon racing with Marie to a showdown with some Sorbonne graybeards. The vial of glowing green radium that Marie carries like a talisman is entrancing and terrifying; we know what’s to come when she and Pierre come down with coughs they can’t quite shake. for thematic elements, disturbing images, brief nudity and a scene of sensuality. Just because a person's accomplishments are great, it doesn't follow that a movie about their life and achievements will be equally as compelling. A fascinating figure, Fuller created a popular dance called the Serpentine that she performed on a darkened stage while wearing a flowing white costume illuminated by deeply colored changing lights. Save. Radioactive's flawed script and counterproductive storytelling choices are offset by Rosamund Pike's central performance in a sincere tribute to a brilliant scientific mind. |, July 25, 2020 Simon Russell Beale (The core irony of Curie’s character in “Radioactive” is that she couldn’t stand to witness death and suffering, despite her discoveries unleashing plenty of both.). Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. Rosamund Pike does wonders with the Nobel-winning scientist and her legacy, Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley in 'Radioactive.'. It is a respectful portrait of a great woman in science – and I found myself wondering about the long-gestating biopic project on the chemist and X-ray crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose work on DNA was ignored by the Nobel committee, on the grounds that the prize can only go to living recipients. Sign up here. Never mind the curveballs that Radioactive throws audiences on its defiantly unconventional journey into a defiantly unconventional life. Maria Salomea Skłodowska Curie has been done proud. It is not easy to know how to take these sequences: they disrupt conventional storytelling in interesting ways, and yet it is disconcerting to see nuclear war as the obvious evil deployed effectively to “balance” the good implications of cancer treatment. There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. ‘Radioactive’ Review: Marie Curie and the Science of Autonomy Rosamund Pike plays the pioneering scientist who won two Nobel Prizes while raising two … She becomes more interesting the less sure she is of herself, and at one point says to longtime friend and fellow scientist Paul Langevin (Aneurin Bernard): “I’m bored of strong. One of our least appreciated and under-used actors, she's been a canny scene-stealer... A solid biopic, which foregrounds yet another towering performance by the terrific Rosamund Pike. Running time: 1 hour 49 minutes. Cinemark |, September 18, 2020 Rosamund Pike in Radioactive Photo: Amazon Studios. Just leave us a message here and we will work on getting you verified. Christy Lemire is a co-host of the YouTube film review show "What the Flick?!" But the execution is frustratingly inconsistent, with a time-hopping structure that’s more jarring than thrilling. Pierre’s accidental death in 1906, when he slipped under a horse-drawn cart and a wheel fractured his skull, devastated Marie. |, August 17, 2020 Verified reviews are considered more trustworthy by fellow moviegoers. PG-13. |, August 16, 2020 The young Polish immigrant born Maria Sklodowska and the man who goes on to become her lab partner, husband and the father of her two daughters, French scientist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley), spend so much time standing around explaining technical things to each other (as well as their feelings) that it almost plays like an episode of "Drunk History.". Curie's relevance shines through the film. A well-appointed but disappointing biopic whose flat-footed screenplay caves to all the cliched ways such movies pander to audiences that supposedly can't accept complicated ideas or another era's norms unless they're spoon-fed in pureed form. Directed by Marjane Satrapi. Fair enough. | Rating: B- The same sparks run through the direction of Marjane Satrapi, who knows how to energize screen biography; just watch 2007’s Persepolis, the animated film that she co-directed that’s based on her own graphic novel about growing up in Iran under the Shah. | Rating: C- Visits to a Cleveland cancer ward, the Enola Gay, Chernobyl and an atomic test site in the American Southwest look at once overproduced and crammed in; a sequence set in World War I, wherein Marie and her daughter Irène (Anya Taylor-Joy) deliver X-ray machines to the front, lifts up a little-known chapter of Curie’s career, but still feels perfunctory and too-obvious. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy There is a micro-drama of a child with cancer being treated with radiotherapy in the 1950s, and scenes showing the destruction of Hiroshima and US nuclear weapons testing. 'Radioactive' revisits the life and times of Madame Curie—Rosamund Pike does wonders with the Nobel-winning scientist, says Peter Travers.