Darwin's Darkest Hour (2009)

This is a pretty movie. Darwin's six charming children are perfectly clean, starched and combed, who might have Mary Poppins or Maria von Trapp as nanny. His wife is a vision of loveliness in gigantic hoop skirts. There is no dust or anything broken in his house. His huge gardens are perfectly tended by invisible gardeners. His papers are perfectly arranged so that even something from a decade past is right on top. We never find out how this magnificent gleaming estate is financed.I have problems with the movie because it so conflicts with everything I heard about Darwin. His wife was an ardent Christian, who strenuously opposed him publishing. Yet in the movie she is his champion and cheerleader urging him to publish.Darwin was terrified of how Christians would react to his work. He made himself ill with fear. Yet in the movie, he is always in perfect health.When his daughter died, that ended Darwin's belief in a benign god. This was a key event in his life. It was handled very indirectly in a single sentence in the movie. I felt the director was Christian and was dishonestly doing all he could to make Darwin look like a solid Christian. Darwin was well aware what he was doing would rock the church to its foundations. Darwin's father and grandfather were atheist, so his lack of faith should be expected.The movie used a clumsy device. After years of marriage, Darwin finally decided to tell his wife what he had been doing in his lab all those years. Why the silence? Why the breaking of the silence? Not explained. This allowed the camera to do flashbacks. The exposition went on and on. Darwin used quite archaic, guarded language which was not very helpful to the modern viewer. I think some poetic licence could have done this exposition work with specific examples and visuals of animals and plants, rather than people walking about a garden talking in abstractions.The movie ends with the publication of Origin Of Species. The truly interesting part comes later.Unfortunately, you don't learn much about evolution. The main subject is who gets credit for ideas.

There is an evolution happening at Nat-Geo. National Geo's Nova did something very different in this episode. Rather than showing another documentary type movie, it premiere a two hour drama movie will coincide with the 200th anniversary of Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of his seminal work 'On the Origin of the Species'. This will be National Geographic Television's first scripted film. This review will not be a debate between Creationism and Darwinism, but a review of the film. Still, it was kind of funny that the actor that plays Charles Darwin in this film play Jesus Christ in another film. The movie starts in 1858 with an actor that doesn't even look like the balding Darwin, Henry Ian Cusick getting a letter from naturalist Alfred Wallace while working on his book 'Origins of Species'. He has spent years refining his ideas and penning his work, but yet to publish his work due to conflict with the orthodox religious values that dominant the time he lives in. Darwin learned from the letter that Wallace is ready to publish ideas very similar to his own. Darwin knows that he can't delay his work anymore and works to publish it even with the fears of backlash. Most of the movie's story is told by Darwin lecturing his devout Christian wife Emma (Frances O'Connor) about what his life work is about. In fact, Emma was a genius who knew Charles Darwin's work who spoke several languages and helped edit Darwin's texts. He tells the story of his beginnings as a young man on voyage on the Beagle around the world. He tells about his finding for science with works on Patagonia, and Galapagos. The movie has some of the best beautiful stock footage of nature and animals. Finally he tells her, his conflicts of explaining his theory to his peers whom is still worry about the society impact of his views work. The movie isn't all about a smart narration explaining Natural Selection and transmutation. It also shows the personal sufferings of its originator. Some of the best acting that comes from Henry is seem with the relationship with his dying daughter. The movie is better than the docudrama portions of the Evolution: Darwin's Dangerous Idea episode. We are taken to defining moments of his works in his novel 'voyage of HMS Beagle' and through the pages of his transmutation notebooks via this dialogue. What I thought was nicely done is showing how Darwin's family was heavily involved in his work at Down House, the domesticity of Darwin's research. He was an unconventional father, very involved in the raising of his children, and at times his children became themselves scientific subjects. The scenes showing Darwin's children assisting, or being attentive to, his various experiments on plants and bees were my favorite and bit funny at times. Darwin was very humorous and jokes when he can. Most of them were often told at someone else's expense. For a film with a low budget, they really use their money correct. The movie wasn't ape crazy being pro evolution and anti-creation. The movie was balance between both views and easy to watch. So give it a try.

Henry Ian Cusack & Frances O'Connor are Charles & Emma Darwin. John Bradshow directed John Goldsmith's weak & ultimately dull script about Charles Darwin at a troubled time in this families life. Another anthropologist published an article similar to his yet unpublished famous book on evolution. At the same time there is serious illness in his family.We also see some excellent scenes of animal life when he was exploring in the Beagle.The above comes over as quite dull. Husband & wife talk & talk & remember exactly what they said a few years back.My rating is higher than it should be because the scenery & settings are so beautiful.Ratings: **1/2 (out of 4) 74 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10)

Evangelical churches and schools should (but won't) make this required viewing. Perhaps those misinformed and deluded millions who take the bible literally can learn something of the profound science in the Origin of Species and the honourable man who moved the world giant steps beyond mythology and superstition. Darwin is too little understood. This brave film is frank in its approach and does not skirt the religion issues. The writer obviously cared about the truth. Beautifully shot in Nova Scotia. Main actors are excellent. Not a bad performance anywhere. Bravo for an important story, well told. PBS should repeat and promote the film even more.