A BRILLIANT YOUNG MIND
Directed by Morgan Matthews
Screenplay by James Graham
Starrimg Asa Butterfield; Sally Hawkins; Rafe Spall and Jo Yang
A socially awkward teenage math prodigy (Butterfield) finds new confidence and new friendships (Yang) when he lands a spot on the British squad at the International Mathematics Olympiad.
A fantastic film!! One of the best of the year!! It is A Beautiful Mind if he was a Middle School/High School Student.
Nathan clearly is autistic and with that comes obsessive compulsive behaviors. He has to have food in a prime number. He loves patterns which draws him to math. With these issues he has many social problems like speaking in public, holding hands and even showing feelings toward his mother. Also, throw in a tragedy that happens early in the film that resonates with him through his life.
No spoilers here. However directing and casting makes it all work.
Butterfield has to do most of his acting with looks/stares and body language. A very difficult part and he scored.
Hawkins who never gives a bad performance is Oscar worthy here as Nathan's confused and calming mom.
Spall as Nathans tutor and mentor with MS brings a much needed levity to the film.
Yang who comes in to Nathans life and is unfazed by his behavior and just rolls with it and will not take no for an answer which is good for Nathan,
The direction by Matthews is very much spot on. He does not rush the film and he knows that sometimes the camera will tell the story and words are not always necessary.
Faults? The ending seemed a bit rushed, I wish it was a bit cleaner. Spall's character was just getting fleshed out but the film seemed to not follow through with it.
This is a fantastic film based on the real life of Daniel Lightwing a mathematician. 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. This film is really good and totally took me by surprise. It was released in the UK in March and it hit our shores a couple weeks back it may be hard to find if you seen it on pay per view watch it..a wonderful happy tearjerker. You may also find it as another title X +Y. Let us hope Sally Hawkins gets a best supporting nom for this!!
From the shadows as always thanks for your time.
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