Creation

(Jon Amiel): Paul Bettany, Jennifer Connolly, Jeremy Northam, Toby Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch. Running time: 108 minutes

Rating: 2/5 (PG)

Here's the controversial film – a biopic of Charles Darwin – that can't get distribution in the US, a country where 40% of people don't believe in evolution. Though I couldn't believe my own ears at the two ladies nattering behind me before the screening. "What did Darwin do again?" asked the first woman. "I don't know," said the second. Deary me.

If they were able to sit through this overbearing, shrill drama, they would have a fair idea of what he was about. On the surface it's an exploration of an historical curiosity: why did Darwin sit on the idea of evolution for so long before going public?

Darwin, played by Paul Bettany, is a balding, sickly man sliding into mental meltdown. His darling daughter Annie (Martha West) is dying (he's quite the family man), and his wife Emily (Jennifer Connelly) is the kind of good Christian who believes they won't be able to reunite in heaven if he writes his book as he will have bought a ticket to hell.

The stress turns Darwin into an anxiety-strewn wretch and the film spirals into psychological melodrama (with some BBC-style nature shots thrown in). There's some heavy-handed drama too, as Darwin is accused, every five minutes, of fighting a war with God.

The more it progresses, the more I couldn't escape the fact this is a lumbering Trojan horse, designed to sneak up on unsuspecting creationists who think Darwin was some kind of monster. Look here, it's saying: Darwin was a nice family man and a dedicated scientist who had no bone to pick with God. As if creationists could give a fossil.