Film review by Martin Liebman for blu-ray.com on August 9, 2016
Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) is a mathematical genius. But that doesn't get him anywhere. He's self-taught and doesn't understand all of the how's or why's of mathematics. He just knows. Without a degree, he cannot land a job. Without a job, he cannot support his wife (Devika Bhise). When he sends evidence of his mathematical genius to Cambridge University, work which appears to disprove complex work done by Mathematician G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), he's invited to the school but is not particularly welcome. His heritage and presence angers those around him. His inability to precisely prove his findings frustrates Hardy. But the two forge a bond, which becomes a friendship. As Ramanujan's work begins to earn him the respect of others, a new adversity will challenge him far more deeply than any he's faced before.
Understanding the intricacies of the mathematics which propels Ramanujan to Cambridge is not in the least bit critical to either enjoying the movie or discovering its greater purpose. The math sounds good, rolling off character tongues in graceful and learnedly literate ways. It looks enticing in shots revealing Ramanujan's notes and formulas, but all of it is merely a driving force to a greater story, support details that set the stage but don't define the narrative. Indeed, The Man Who Knew Infinity is less a story about purely mathematical minds -- certainly those concepts are what draw the men together, a shared passion for, and intimate understanding of, numbers -- and more a tale of discovery, friendship, and common pursuits overcoming common prejudice. In that way, the movie is hardly novel. Many before it have explored similar themes and ideas. The Man Who Knew Infinity does it capably and does it justice, though, with an honest, sincere, and heartfelt exploration of the relationship between Hardy and Ramanujan and the latter's contributions to his field but also his contributions to the hearts of his colleagues.
The movie is well assembled, nicely saturated in its time period which is important to its historical accuracy but of secondary importance to the central, human-value details that drive it and create through it a timeless tale of friendship. Brown's direction is steady and unobtrusive, allowing his cast to emote and define the movie more so than any cinematic techniques which do enhance, but in no way supplant, the performances. The film is made by those performances, including terrific efforts from both Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons as mathematical geniuses and, as the film progresses, colleagues and friends. The performances, like the movie's structure and themes, make use of the language of mathematics and the actors effortlessly and believably integrate their knowledge thereof into the film, but it's beyond the numbers where their work shines. Both leads demonstrate a deeper command of the relationship the characters build, and of the place and time, which is critical to the way it begins and evolves. They also reveal the more intimate understandings that extend beyond the externalities of the world around them, understandings that are nurtured in the heart. The film enjoys several fine key support efforts, notably from Toby Jones as Hardy's closest colleague at Cambridge.
Labels: biography, drama
IMDb 72/100
MetaScore (critics=56, viewers=73)
RottenTomatoes Averages (critics=63,viewers=74)
Blu-ray