Infinity

This is a great film, highly enjoyable by both those who know of Feynman's work and those who have never heard of him. Though there could have been more of the classic - and entertaining - "Feynman stories" included, their absence is really only felt by those who already know them. If you're looking for a good period piece love story, Infinity is certainly a good place to start looking.

During the lead-in, the viewer is warned that the film is not about science, but is instead remembered as a love story. Specifically, this film is based on Richard P. Feynman's autobiographical book What Do You Care What Other People Think?, where he detailed his first marriages to Arlene Greenbaum, who died tragically young of tuberculosis in 1945, while Feynman was working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.

The film does an excellent job of portraying this relationship, remaining remarkably faithful to Feynman's own account of the events. The place where they falter, however, is in making Feynman come alive. This is probably because they only purchased the rights to the one book, so couldn't use any of the stories from Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman. I spent the entire film wondering why it never showed Feynman cracking safes at Los Alamos until I realized that it was from the wrong book, and they probably would have had to pay extra to use those stories.

The science in the film is minor, used mainly as a tool to show that Feynman was good at explaining things and demonstrating the way that he and Arlene communicated with each other, as he tried to explain complex topics to her. The depth of his genius is generated only a couple of times, such as when he is able to beat an abacus at arithmetics, but there's no context for much of it. For example, one scene between his thesis advisor John Wheeler and he shows Wheeler correcting a flaw in his work, but out of context it isn't clear that even Feynman's mistakes were likely brilliant by any normal standard.

As a love story, the film stands up quite well. Patricia Arquette does a great job portraying Arlene as a woman of her day, but also as someone who Feynman found a personal and even intellectual companionship with. She was the love of his life, and it shows.