Radioactive

... but it still wouldn't shield you from some pretty poor editing and a story condensed into 100 minutes about a great woman who deserves so much more but seems to get the blame for Hiroshima, Chernobyl as well as errant husbands.

This movie is a pale and shallow effort to represent an extraordinary person with a remarkable life. Marie Curie is an absolute icon one of the most important scientists that ever existed and for sure the most important female scientist. Madamme Curie had a life full of challenges and she fought bravely to overcome barriers in the name of science. Her passion, her brilliance and her character changed the world in more than one way. She opened the way for women in science. She was the first female professor in the University of Paris. She was a poor immigrant, who had to work her way to the top. She was open about love, she was brave and humble and honest. She donated most of her Nobel money. Did we get that in the movie? Maybe 1% of it. The vision of the director about one of the greatest minds of all time is "Sheldon Cooper in a dress". There was some effort to suggest how her discoveries changed the world, but it did not succeed to present the scope and the greatest importance of her work.

This is not a bad movie, actually it is perfectly watchable. Actors are great and the love story between Marie and Pier is adorable. But given the fact that they had such an amazing life, I think the movie is a missed chance.

Still better love story than Twilight though

Marie Curie became more prominent after her death especially around the early years this century, so a film about her life and achievements was a welcome view. There are a few changes in the facts, probably to make this move more dramatic, but perhaps the book from which this film derives, was written like that. The tough days in Marie Curie's life when she arrived in Paris is hardly touched, which undoubtedly lead to her stubborn attitude which is over characterized in this film. In real life she was not such a hard and difficult person.

The most accurate thing I can say about this movie is that I watched it... then went searching for the real story. This excessive dramatization I am sure does little to present the true story.

Unlike many here I did not mind the reference to Hiroshima and Chernobyl. Although these happened long after Curie died and had no effect on her career, they were reminders of an important fact: science can be used in a beneficial manner, or in a questionable and disastrous manner. These things had nothing to do with Curie herself, but were cautionary references that I found pertinent to the concept that discovery always bears consequence.

As for Curie herself, at the end of this flick I felt I knew no more about her than when I started watching. The story dramatizes her personal life and excessively focuses on personal relationships while leaving out far too much of her science and actual career accomplishments. That is certainly no credit to the production and earns it a "mediocre" 5 stars.

An Amazon Prime original from last year & directed by Marjane Satrapi (Persepolis/Chicken w/Plums). A late life biopic on Marie Curie, played by Rosemund Pike (Oscar nominated for Gone Girl), as she came to Paris to study from Poland, met the man who would become her husband, played by Sam Riley (Control), & how they join forces to discover the elements radium & polonium. Throughout their experiments (which garnered a pair of Nobel prizes) Curie pushed the envelope in a world where men dominated science but through her sheer will & her own health from radiation exposure (the scenes where we see the happy couple crushing piles upon piles of coal rocks kind of made me cringe a bit) she revolutionized her field. Ah alas if only the film could make the same claim as it stumbles between checking off the important deets of her life & using artistic flights of fancy (w/animation) to bring the audience into her realm. Pike is professional & stalwart in her performance but she does also come off as standoffish, only letting those near & dear to her to get close & even then one would say she was far from lovable. Co-starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Pike's oldest daughter.