Radioactive

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.

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.

For a historical figure with an impact as significant as Marie Curie, this is a really underwhelming biopic. Stale, rushed and lacking any insightful emotional depth, Radioactive is a dull watch throughout, failing in its attempt to capture both the significance of Curie's discoveries and her own personal struggles.

It's so strange how poor this film is, given the immense talent behind it. On screen, Rosamund Pike and Sam Riley star, while Persepolis director Marjane Satrapi helms the film. Yet despite that talent, Radioactive feels almost amateurish at its worst.

Its screenplay is poor throughout, from its lack of dramatic insight to its consistently terrible dialogue. The early moments of the film are insufferable, chronicling Marie's meeting with future husband Pierre through scenes of awkward and forced scientific flirting.

Later on, Radioactive tries to grab your attention with its assessment of the standing of women in the scientific community, but does little to make that theme really get under your skin. In fact, the most memorable part of that theme is Curie's repeated assertions that it was not her gender that stood most in her way as a scientist at the time, but her background and funds.

And with relatively little focus on her background, there isn't much of an inspiring, uplifting arc for Curie here. Instead, there are a few eureka moments interspersed by long, dry and dull periods with barely any memorable drama to show.

Even stranger is the way in which the film tries to represent the long-term, controversial effects of Curie's discovery of radioactivity. Almost randomly, the film throws in bizarre vignettes from the future showing the uses of the discovery for good and bad, including the bombing of Hiroshima and the development of nuclear weapons.

That all but ruins any narrative flow in the film, only reinforcing the fact that Radioactive really is a bit of an amateurish work. Marjane Satrapi's generally unappealing style and drab direction do little to keep you engaged, while even leads like Sam Riley and to an extent Rosamund Pike are below their best.

It's a real shame, because it's clear that Marie Curie's is a great story, and with so much talent working in this film, you would expect a whole lot more from Radioactive. But, as a painfully dull, stale and even amateurish biopic, there's little positive to say about it.

My Review- Radioactive (Prime Amazon) My rating 6/10

My 6/10 rating is for the film itself Rosamund Pike gets an 8:10 for her performance as Marie Curie the famous Nobel Winning Scientist who discovered the elements of Polinium and Radium.

She marries and forms a partnership with her husband Pierre (Sam Riley ) who also gives a fine performance in a very flawed script apparently filled with inaccuracies to add to the drama but in my view only adds to the dullness of this movie.

"Rotten Tomatoes " though similar to me "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.

The film is based on the graphic novel ''Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout'' by Lauren Redniss. This is director Marjane Satrapi's first film based on a graphic novel that was not written by her. I think that is very obvious and shows her inexperience . The Screenplay by Jack Thorne is just dull and uninteresting I'm sure the book it's based on must be better.

There are intrusive and unnecessary and distracting references to the future effects of Marie Curie's contributions to Science depicting the future impact of her discoveries, including external beam radiotherapy at a hospital in Cleveland in 1956, the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a nuclear bomb test in Nevada in 1961, and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 it gives the impression or perhaps message that perhaps humanity may have been better off without her great discoveries?

Both the Curies experienced radium burns, both accidentally and voluntarily, and were exposed to extensive doses of radiation while conducting their research. They experienced radiation sickness and Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia in 1934. Even now, all their papers from the 1890s, even her cookbooks, are too dangerous to touch. Their laboratory books are kept in special lead boxes and people who want to see them have to wear protective clothing. Had Pierre Curie not been killed as he was, it is likely that he would have eventually died of the effects of radiation, as did his wife, their daughter Irène, and her husband Frédéric Joliot.

I'm a great fan of Rosamund Pike and enjoyed her performance in this very dull average film I suggest read the book or watch the far superior 1943 film with Greer Garson "Madam Curie." and Walter Pidgeon as Pierre.

It was nominated for 7 Oscars and a much better film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and based on Ève Curie the daughter of Madam Curie.

... 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.