The Aeronauts
The pursuit of Victorian science makes for great entertainment, and this film has its quota of well-to-do men in waistcoats tutting through their massive facial hair at the prospect of some scientific innovation. James Glaisher’s work with air balloons proved that the atmosphere had different levels, and he was a pioneer of forecasting the weather. This film removes his aeronaut partner Henry Coxwell and replaces him with a lady, Amelia Rennes, who is more of a fairground pilot—very much the showman to Glaisher’s studious scientist. This is not a big problem as Amelia represents a composite of several lady balloon pioneers of the time. Glaisher and Rennes are played by Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones, reunited after portraying Stephen and Jane Hawking a few years ago. Amelia Rennes is very much the focus of the early part of the film: there are flashbacks to an unhappy time in her life, and anxiety makes her a little too unreliable for Glaisher. However the two get into a ...