Roedy Green 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.

Jay Harris 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 Another anthropologist published an article similar to his yet unpublished famous book on evolution.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)

jeffery2010 This is a well crafted story about the dilemma faced by Charles Darwin when he receives a letter from Russell Wallace that almost spells out the theory of Evolution from Natural Selection. Darwin has been working on this theory for some 20 years and now he holds a letter that could usurp his primacy should he forward it on. The show then follows his conversations with his wife as he discusses what he should do, and the events that shaped his formation of the theory. This is also a drama that touches on the current health troubles in his family and the effect the death a few years before of his beloved daughter Annie had on him. This is an excellent production, the performances are solid, and the art direction,sets, and costumes are wonderful. The only complaint was the contrivance of having Darwin spell everything out to his wife (who would have know 90% of it already) for our benefit. But this is also a quiet drama of his family life so cutting between that and him talking to... a reporter(?)would have been jarring. They could have done the whole thing in flashbacks from a time after publication, but what they did here ultimately does work, as we watch an honorable man do the right thing.

nowcomm-549-397958 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.