Pike is great in everything and has demonstrated dazzling range, from “ An Education” to “ Gone Girl,” and she’s more than capable of convincing us as Curie that she’s the smartest person in the room at all times-male or female. “Radioactive” gives her plenty of room to be feisty and no-nonsense, fragile and impulsive. Rosamund Pike remains magnetic throughout, however, as the brilliant, two-time Nobel Prize-winning physicist and chemist.
But the execution is frustratingly inconsistent, with a time-hopping structure that’s more jarring than thrilling. With “Radioactive,” Satrapi eschews traditional biopic notions in favor of a more daring approach. In telling the story of Marie Curie, director Marjane Satrapi seems similarly driven to blaze a bright trail of her own.
