For a person who is keenly aware of the downside of fame - he worries that he is known as much for his illness as he is for his scientific discoveries - the storytelling falls short.

He talks a lot about his two wives. This makes Hawking unusually revealing, because his life has almost always been framed in terms of his mental brilliance.

As billed, an intimate look at a genius, but the science gets a major haircut here.

Taken on its merits, Hawking serves as a useful introduction to -- and a touching, intimate portrait of -- its remarkable subject.