''Radioactive'' is a 2019 British biographical

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

film directed by Marjane Satrapi, written by Jack Thorne, and starring Rosamund Pike as Marie Curie. The film is based on the 2010 graphic novel '' Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout'' by the American artist Lauren Redniss. The film premiered as the Closing Night Gala at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. The film was scheduled to be released in cinemas in 2020, but its opening was cancelled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. It was released digitally in the United Kingdom on 15 June 2020 by

StudioCanal StudioCanal S.A.S. (formerly known as Le Studio Canal+, Canal Plus, Canal+ Distribution, Canal+ D.A., and Canal+ Production and also known as StudioCanal International) is a French film & television production and distribution company which is a ...

and began streaming on

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

in the United States on 24 July 2020.

Plot

In 1934, Marie Curie collapses in her laboratory in Paris. As she is rushed to the hospital, she remembers her life. In 1893 she was frequently rejected for funding due to her attitude, which she had in common with

Pierre Curie Pierre Curie ( ; ; 15 May 1859 – 19 April 1906) was a French physicist, Radiochemistry, radiochemist, and a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity. He shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, ...

. This joint attitude issue with the leading academic authorities led her to share a laboratory with Pierre Curie. Before Marie discovers polonium and radium, the two fall in love, marry, and have two children. Soon, Marie announces the discovery of

radioactivity Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is conside ...

, revolutionizing physics and chemistry. Radium is soon used in a series of commercial products. Pierre takes Marie to a séance where it is used to attempt to contact the dead, but Marie disapproves of spiritualism and the idea of an

afterlife The afterlife or life after death is a purported existence in which the essential part of an individual's Stream of consciousness (psychology), stream of consciousness or Personal identity, identity continues to exist after the death of their ...

after the death of her mother in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. Although Pierre rejects the ''

Légion d'honneur The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and Civil society, civil. Currently consisting of five cl ...

'' for not nominating Marie and insists that they jointly share their Nobel Prize in Physics, she becomes agitated that he accepted the Prize in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

without her. Soon afterwards Pierre becomes increasingly sick with anemia as a result of his research and is trampled to death by a horse. Marie initially dismisses concerns that her elements are toxic, but increasing numbers of people die from serious health conditions after exposure to radium. Depressed, she begins an affair with her colleague Paul Langevin. Although she receives Pierre's professorship at the Sorbonne, the French nationalist press reports the details of her affair with Langevin and she is harassed by xenophobic mobs due to her Polish origins. Marie returns to the house where she attended the seance and tearfully begs her friend,

Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (; born Marie Louise Fuller; January 15, 1862 – January 1, 1928), also known as Louie Fuller and Loïe Fuller, was an American dancer and a pioneer of modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques. Auguste Rodin said of her, "Lo ...

, who was there to try to use radium to contact Pierre. When she is awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, she defies the committee's instructions not to travel to Stockholm and at her award ceremony receives a standing ovation from the entire audience. In 1914, when

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

starts, Marie's daughter Irene convinces her to run an X-ray unit on the Western Front in order to determine whether or not

amputation Amputation is the removal of a Limb (anatomy), limb or other body part by Physical trauma, trauma, medical illness, or surgery. As a surgical measure, it is used to control pain or a disease process in the affected limb, such as cancer, malign ...

is needed for wounded soldiers. Irene begins dating Frédéric Joliot, and Marie initially disapproves of that relationship because of their joint research into induced radioactivity, later asking Irene not to take part in Frédéric's future work on this because of possible effects on her health. Although Irene does not heed her mother, together they go to the Western Front together to run the X-ray machine. Scenes of Marie's life are interwoven with scenes depicting the future impact of her discoveries, including external beam radiotherapy at a hospital in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

in 1956, the

atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki On 6 and 9 August 1945, the United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively, during World War II. The aerial bombings killed between 150,000 and 246,000 people, most of whom were civili ...

, a nuclear bomb test in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

in 1961, and the

Chernobyl disaster On 26 April 1986, the no. 4 reactor of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, located near Pripyat, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Ukrainian SSR, Soviet Union (now Ukraine), exploded. With dozens of direct casualties, it is one of only ...

in 1986. As she dies in 1934, she sees visions of these events before awakening in a hospital room. Pierre arrives and they leave the hospital together. Before the film's credits, the Curies' accomplishments are detailed, including their mobile unit which X-rayed more than a million men during the war "saving countless lives", their research would be used to create

radiotherapy Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle ...

, and the Joliot-Curies would discover artificial or induced radioactivity in 1935. The movie's last image is of a photo showing Marie Curie's attendance at the 1927 Solvay Conference with many other celebrated physicists, including

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

Cast

Production

Development

It was announced in February 2017 that Marjane Satrapi would direct a biopic on the life of Marie Curie, with

and Working Title Films serving as producers. An "autumn 2017" production start was initially foreseen. In May 2017, during the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Film Festival (; ), until 2003 called the International Film Festival ('), is the most prestigious film festival in the world. Held in Cannes, France, it previews new films of all genres, including documentaries, from all around ...

, Rosamund Pike was cast as Curie.

Filming

In February 2018, Amazon Studios acquired the US distribution rights to the film, with filming beginning in the Hungarian cities of Budapest and Esztergom the same week. The cast was rounded out by Sam Riley,

Anya Taylor-Joy Anya-Josephine Marie Taylor-Joy (; born 16 April 1996) is an actress. Born in Miami and raised in Buenos Aires and London, she left school at the age of 16 to pursue an acting career. After a series of small television roles, her Breakthrough ...

, Aneurin Barnard and Simon Russell Beale a few days later.

Release

''Radioactive'' premiered as the Closing Night Gala at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

on 14 September 2019. To celebrate International Women's Day, the film's UK premiere took place at the Curzon Mayfair Cinema on 8 March 2020, ahead of its intended 20 March theatrical release, which was cancelled due to the

. StudioCanal eventually released the film in the United Kingdom through electronic sell-through platforms on 15 June 2020 and through

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films Digital distribution, digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typica ...

on 6 July, followed by a DVD release on 27 July. In the United States, where the film was originally set to be released theatrically on 24 April 2020 by Amazon Studios, it was released straight to

on 24 July 2020.

Reception

Critical response

On the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film holds an approval rating of based on reviews, with an average rating of . The website's critics consensus reads, "''Radioactive''s flawed script and counterproductive storytelling choices are offset by Rosamund Pike's central performance in a sincere tribute to a brilliant scientific mind."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 56 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews. Deborah Young of ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised Pike's performance, the pacing and the treatment of the subject. ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' gave it two stars and criticised the "on-the-nose writing that sucks the air out of every scene, as characters ceremoniously announce the film's themes and their personal motivations." Charles Bramesco of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'' panned the film as "by-the-numbers", criticising the script and direction, and gave it one star out of five. Kate Taylor of ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' concluded that "the viewer may decide arie wouldrather read a comic book."

Controversy

Although the film is actually based on a 2010 graphic novel, it is marketed as a "biopic" on Marie Curie. Geraldine McGinty of

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

severely criticised the film not just for altering many historical events for dramatic effect, but for misrepresenting Curie's character and that of her husband, e.g. by saying that she stayed at home rather than attending the 1905 Nobel ceremony with Pierre, where he belatedly delivered the lecture for their 1903 prize. McGinty said that its misleading analogies, misrepresentation of principal characters, and inappropriate nudity and violence, all make it unsuitable as an educational or biographical source.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Radioactive 2019 films 2019 biographical drama films Biographical films about scientists British biographical drama films British nonlinear narrative films Cultural depictions of Pierre Curie Films about the afterlife Films about the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki Films about chemistry Films about the Chernobyl disaster Films about Marie Curie Films about Nobel laureates Films about physics Films about physicists Films about sexism Films directed by Marjane Satrapi Films not released in theaters due to the COVID-19 pandemic Films produced by Eric Fellner Films produced by Tim Bevan Films set in the 20th century Films set in 1893 Films set in 1903 Films set in 1914 Films set in 1934 Films set in 1945 Films set in 1956 Films set in 1961 Films set in 1985 Films set in Cleveland Films set in Chernobyl (city) Films set in Hiroshima Films set in Nevada Films set in Paris Films set in Poland Films set in Stockholm Films shot in Budapest Films with screenplays by Jack Thorne Western Front (World War I) films Amazon MGM Studios films StudioCanal films Working Title Films films Amazon Prime Video original films 2010s English-language films 2010s British films English-language biographical drama films