The Man Who Knew Infinity **½ (2015, Jeremy Irons, Dev Patel, Toby Jones, Kevin McNally, Jeremy Northam, Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry) – Movie Review

The Man Who Knew Infinity tells a thought-provoking, civilised story, Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel are excellent, and the Cambridge shooting is good too.

Writer-director Matt Brown’s old-fashioned 2015 biopic of Indian maths genius Srinivasa Ramanujan Iyengar (Dev Patel) is good hearted, spirited and intelligent, if somewhat plodding as film-making. Iyengar grows up poor in Madras but earns admittance to Cambridge University during World War One. There he meets racial prejudice and bad food but becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories under the erratic guidance of his eccentric professor, G.H. Hardy ( Jeremy Irons) and with the kindly help of tutor Littlewood (Toby Jones).

The three excellent performances from the first-rate Brit actors do much to mitigate a well-meaning, earnest TV movie-style film that comes in a limping third to Good Will Hunting (1997) and A Beautiful Mind (2001). Irons, particularly, seems on fired-up form, in a busy year for him, with High-Rise and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. But Patel is also likeable, and the two engaging actors share good chemistry in their weird, under-explored bromance. Kevin McNally also scores well as old rival genius, Major McMahon. Also in the cast are Jeremy Northam, Devika Bhise, Stephen Fry but they are in under-written roles and wasted.

A posh-looking production is another strong asset, with strong work on cinematography by Larry Smith and production design by Luciana Arrighi and Rajeevan Nambiar. This raises the film’s game and makes it look sleek and classy. I didn’t understand the baffling maths or the title, by the way. Infinity would be better, or From Here to Infinity.

Matt Brown’s screenplay is based on the biography by Robert Kanigel.

David Leavitt (‘The Lost Language of Cranes’) wrote a semi-fictional version of Iyengar’s story in his novel The Indian Clerk. In Good Will Hunting, Stellan Skarsgård’s Professor Gerald Lambeau compares Matt Damon’s Will Hunting to Srinivasa Ramanujan in his extraordinary maths ability.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Movie Review

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