Cert 12A
109 mins
BBFC advice: Contains racist language and behaviour
Maths can be fun, apparently. Well, Master W thinks so but he is a maths teacher.
I scored a pretty solid B for my O level back in 1980 but my knowledge isn't much beyond a bit of algebra and my ability to use a logarithm book has long gone.
However, a few years back I was a fan of A Beautiful Mind, the biopic of the maths genius John Forbes Nash Jr, who was a paranoid schizophrenic.
This time up for the Hollywood treatment is Srinivasa Ramanujan, who developed original mathematical theories despite coming from a background of poverty in India.
Dev Patel plays Ramanujan who is naive and uncertain in almost every field outside of complex mathematics.
Thus, when a sponsor (Stephen Fry) clears the way for an invitation to work with a Cambridge professor (Jeremy Irons), he is thrust into a world for which he is totally unprepared.
Patel is suitably wide-eyed but brilliant as Ramanujan who finds settling into Cambridge academia fiendishly difficult. The emotional strain is made even worse by the distance from his new wife (Devika Bhise) back home in Madras.
And his situation is not helped by the fact that his mentor, expertly carried off by Irons, is gruff and unfeeling.
Toby Jones is the kinder face of the intelligentsia who, in the main, are not keen to be challenged by an Indian upstart.
Part of the charm of Matt Brown's movie is that it is set at Cambridge between 1914 and 1920 when good manners were as important as being able to tell the time.
But it was also an era during which the British upper lip was its most stiff.
Both Mrs W and I fell for The Man Who Knew Infinity. There is nothing like an underdog story and this is among the best.
Reasons to watch: riveting true story, beautifully acted
Reasons to avoid: it's about maths!
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 8/10
Star tweet
Alex Bartram Delighted to be in #TheManWhoKnewInfinity, out today! A great story, beautifully told.
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