{"id":20877,"date":"2020-07-22T13:59:05","date_gmt":"2020-07-22T20:59:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=20877"},"modified":"2020-07-22T13:59:05","modified_gmt":"2020-07-22T20:59:05","slug":"radioactive-features-a-strong-lead-but-the-results-are-inconclusive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=20877","title":{"rendered":"RADIOACTIVE Features a Strong Lead, but the Results Are Inconclusive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This title will be available for streaming on Amazon\nPrime as of Friday, July 24th<\/sup>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of history\u2019s greatest scientific pioneers was\nphysicist\/chemist Marie Curie. In the early 20th<\/sup> century, this woman\nnot only broke barriers for woman, but for the research field in general. In\nfact, the life of you or someone you know has been changed in one way or\nanother as a result of her tireless work. As one might guess, spending the majority\nof your time devoting oneself to research can lead to all sorts of advances, as\nwell as complications and tragedies. Radioactive<\/em> tries to put some\nperspective on the woman\u2019s life and her remarkable discoveries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Believe it or not, there have already been a few movies over\nthe years devoted to the figure, including a 1943 Hollywood adaptation and a\nFrench\/Polish\/German production in 2016. Each has its charms, but it\u2019s fairly safe\nto say that none have quite done the subject justice. In fact, it may be that\nthis person\u2019s story isn\u2019t particularly well suited to cinema. Whatever the reason\nmay be, the latest attempt does correct a few problems present in earlier\nadaptations and certainly has some plusses. Yet, once again, it still doesn\u2019t\nmanage to overcome all of the story issues in order to tell Curie\u2019s story in a\ndynamic way.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movie picks up with the stubborn Maria Sk\u0142odowska\n(Rosamund Pike) working at the University of Paris, struggling to maintain\nfunding for her lab research on uranium. Professor Pierre Curie (Sam Riley) takes\nan interest in her experiments, befriending the researcher. He eventually\nconvinces the two to collaborate and finds space for her in his lab. Their work\nleads to the discovery of radioactivity using polonium and radium. The two also\nform a close bond that results in marriage. However, it isn\u2019t all wine and\nroses. Over the course of her life, Marie Curie struggles with prejudices in\nher profession and also butts heads and with family members, including her\ndaughter (Anya Taylor-Joy). And of course, the lead is forced to grapple with\nthe unintended health effects caused by radioactivity.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pike has an enormously difficult challenge in depicting a\ncharacter who can be both heroic and remarkably difficult (particularly early\non), even to the point of lashing out at others. The performer does an able job\nat making the character layered and complex. This movie also uses an unusual storytelling\ntechnique to try and keep things fresh, jumping ahead in time to various events\nin history that have occurred in part because of Curie\u2019s research years earlier.\nNo doubt this approach has been used to emphasize how her efforts were advanced\nover generations and led to both medical advancements and horrific disasters. There\nare also a few intriguing bits of exposition with microscopic visual\nenhancements that detail some of her theories. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s interesting and the cast do well under the\ncircumstances, but there is still something dramatically lacking about the enterprise.\nTruthfully, I\u2019m not entirely certain that the story of this famous figure\nreally suits a cinematic narrative. We see a woman\u2019s life and the various personal\nand professional struggles endured to make specific advancements. Yet at times,\nit just feels like a Cliff\u2019s Notes version of her life, and the quick jumps\nbetween various emotional highs and lows are choppy. Certainly, Curie could be\nblunt and nasty at times, but the quick behavioral shifts and need to race the\nplot along towards the next tragedy makes it all feel too condensed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mystic finale integrates Curie into different time\nperiods in order to come to a conclusion about where her work led, has been\ncreated to add drama and provide an emotional finish. It also attempts to\nilluminate how her decisions affected the world over the following century. The\nconceit is curious, but ultimately comes across as a bit of a simplification\nand doesn\u2019t result in as teary-eyed a resolution as hoped for.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radioactive<\/em> features a committed lead performance. This\nreviewer also gives the picture marks for trying to condense an enigmatic\nperson\u2019s life and create an inspiring narrative out of their story. There are\nsome good elements and a few interesting experiments, but as a whole the study is\ninconclusive and doesn\u2019t deliver an entirely satisfying end result. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This title will be available for streaming on Amazon Prime as of Friday, July 24th. One of history\u2019s greatest scientific pioneers was physicist\/chemist Marie Curie. In the early 20th century, this woman not only broke barriers for woman, but for the research field in general. In fact, the life of you or someone you know […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20878,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[198,1181,1634,2787,2789,6251,13216,16586,16587,16588,16589,17366,17565,17774],"class_list":["post-20877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-198","tag-amazon-prime","tag-anya-taylor-joy","tag-biography","tag-biopic","tag-drama","tag-marie-curie","tag-radioactive","tag-radioactive-film-review","tag-radioactive-movie-review","tag-radioactive-review","tag-rosamund-pike","tag-sam-riley","tag-science"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20877\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}