Radioactive

Starring: Rosamund Pike, Sam Riley, Aneurin Barnard

Director: Marjane Satrapi

Based on the book "Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout" by Lauren Redniss

After being kicked out of her laboratory at the Sorbonne, scientist Marie Sklodowska (Rosamund Pike) is given a spare lab by teacher and fellow scientist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley). Her research intrigues Pierre and he soon becomes her scientific and romantic partner. They marry and have a child but that doesn't stop their experiments. Months turn to years but the pair finally discover two new elements, radium and polonium, as well as radioactivity. As their fame begins to rise and the requests to find new uses for radium pour in, their research begins to have a physical toll on their lives. After their experiments and discoveries lead them to win the Nobel Prize, Marie is left reeling after the tragic death of Pierre. Marie takes over teaching Pierre's classes (becoming the first female professor at The Sorbonne) while continuing her research on radium, going on to win a second Nobel Prize while dealing with the fallout from her affair with friend and fellow scientist Paul (Aneurin Barnard).

For me, it's hard to make an interesting biopic nowadays. Even telling extraordinary stories, a lot of the suspense ends up being lost due to the final results being known. This puts a lot on the director, who must find an interesting way to tell the story.

I'd say that Director Marjane Satrapi mostly answers the challenge. Despite feeling somewhat routine for about half its run time, the film is never boring. Pike's captivating performance coupled with her fight for equality in science gives the film a strong backbone on which to build. Satrapi inventively intercuts dialogue about radium and radioactivity with flash forwards that show either the helpful (to battle cancer, X-rays) or destructive (atomic bomb, Chernobyl) nature that we eventually use them for. These serve as powerful reminders of the many ways science can be used.

The film covers a lot of time and many of Curie's amazing accomplishments. While it's admirable that the film attempts to recognize all of them and cram so much material into its sub two hour run time, I wish it had focused on one specific time. Some of her biggest accomplishments unfortunately end up coming off as afterthoughts and it undercuts their significance.

Depending on how the awards race shakes out, I could easily see Rosamund Pike getting nominated. The actress is fantastic as Marie Curie, especially as she struggles after the death of Pierre and in the wake of her affair with Paul. She had fantastic chemistry with Sam Riley, whose absence in the second half of the film is definitely felt and supports my feeling that the film would have been better served focusing on one specific time.

Despite my issues with the film, it was one of the better biopics I've seen in a while.

Grade: B

Radioactive is available on Amazon Prime