Movie review: Radioactive
For a film about the discovery of radioactivity, the results are surprisingly inert and may even leave viewers cold.
This uneven Marie Curie biopic falls into the same category as other historical period clunkers like The Current War and The Aeronauts, which failed to make world-changing ideas and dry subject matters interesting and dramatic enough for the big screen.
Here, we journey through Nobel Prize-winning pioneer Curie's (Rosamund Pike) legacies - her productive marriage to scientist Pierre Curie (Sam Riley), scientific breakthroughs with radioactivity and transformative effects and ensuing fallout of her work.
Even though the story is set in the late 19th century and early 20th century, jarring flash-forward moments are inserted - from cancer treatment and the WWII atomic bombings to the Chernobyl disaster - to remind us of both the good and the horrifically bad.
Despite Pike's best efforts to light up the screen in her portrayal of such an exceptional woman, she cannot save Radioactive from being as exciting as a chemistry class. So perhaps it is best just to keep your distance.
RATING: NC16
SCORE: 2/5
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