Review of The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016) by Karen H — 03 Sep 2016

Well-made and quite sentimental, The Man Who Knew Infinity is a totally predictable and lacking climax true story of an extremely bright young mind. A period biopic, the movie relies on existing clichés (if compared to A Beautiful Mind, for instance) and never really attempts to be more daring or straying from the formula that makes is a very watchable home cinema family entertainment.

The movie tells the extraordinary story of the young Indian Srinavasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel), whose remarkable mathematical thinking still amazes the scientific society. A man without education or a degree, he impresses the brightest mathematics minds in England during the pre-World War I years and finally gets the chance to join them in Cambridge. There he builds a strong friendship and collaborates with Prof. G.H.Hardy (Jeremy Irons) only Prof. Littlewood (Toby Jones) amidst atmosphere of racism and prejudices coming from people around. The story of how Mr.Ramanujan challenged the existing mathematics thinking by only using his intuition is quite compelling even if the audience never gets to go in details of what he has achieved. Knowing that getting more technical would make the movie a totally niche production, director Matt Brown has decided to focus more on the personal challenged which the young Indian faces and the friendship he builds up with Prof. Hardy during his stay in Cambridge.

With such an inspirational story as a base for the movie, it comes as a disappointment that The Man Who Knew Infinity is so predictable and monotonous. If the predictability is to be forgiven due to the structure of the story (and more precisely the opening scene), the fact that all events are so deprived from tension and true emotions, turn Matt Brown's delivery into a sort of a delivery suitable for TV and not for the silver screen. Diluted into a melodrama The Man Who Knew Infinity is saved by the handsome "British-ness" of the story, the actors and even the humor. The leading actors Dev Patel - Jeremy Irons form a lovable duo of two totally different personalities from which Jeremy Irons clearly stands out as Prof. Hardy.

To sum it up, The Man Who Knew Infinity is certainly a watchable biopic drama that would satisfy all types of audiences. Perfectly suitable for a late evening home entertainment, the movie offers an intriguing story which will make you more curious about this brilliant mind and potentially look him up in Google or Wikipedia short after the final credits.