Marie Sklodowska-Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and then she did it again. This an honest and touching depiction of the life of a remarkable scientist. Sounds a little bit high-school science-classy, no? Ah, but that’s before you know it stars Rosamond Pike, who has never put in anything but committed, humanizing performances.

Granted, it gets a little dry in spots, and it’s marred by odd tonal twists as Iranian director Satrapi tries to break up the rather formulaic, traditional screenplay by flashing forward to modern-day results of Curie’s discoveries – medical treatments, to be sure, but also Hiroshima and Chernobyl. 

It doesn’t always work, but somehow Pike transcends the film’s inherent instability and pulls it all together. (109 min)