Creation

I went and saw Creation today. I enjoyed the film, though personally I am a bit tired of the religion vs. science angle. To some extent I felt that there was a conflation between the views & emphases of Thomas Huxley and Charles Darwin. Paul Bettany’s character seemed to be expositing a view of evolution which was less subtle than what the real Darwin outlined so as to juxtapose his own stance cleanly against the simple narrative offered by traditional religion.
But a movie is a story about characters, not a perfect reenactment of history. One thing that struck me about Creation was the power of Jennifer Connelly’s portrayal of Emma Darwin. I remember seeing Connelly in Labyrinth as a child, and remarking even then on her striking looks. No longer 16 years old, Connelly’s form and comportment have both matured with grace. The Emma Darwin of Creation exhibited a regal quiet elegance. In contrast, despite being a bit of a hypochondriac I grew tired of Charles Darwin’s sickliness and general ennui.
Finally, a picayune but interesting observation. The young actress who played Darwin’s eldest daughter, Annie, had very dark eyes. Both Paul Bettany and Jennifer Connelly have light eyes. There is then a high probability in the real world that the genetics would be such that the probability of a dark eyed child emerging from light eyed parents is low enough that one might point to misattributed paternity as the cause behind the anomaly. I note this because one of the central issues which hovers over Creation is Charles Darwin’s fear of the possibility that the illnesses which his children suffered, in particular Annie, were the outcome of the fact that he and Emma were first cousins. This concern occupies a central position within the narrative arc, so I couldn’t help but always note the physical evidence which strongly implied that there was in fact no consanguinity at all in that specific instance.