baileyliu So as a fan of math and Asa Butterfield I really expected something out of this film...And from the trailers and clips I watched I thought this is going to be great...But it turns out the film in general is too BLAND. So there wasn't much excitement within this film. The between romance between Zhengmei and Nathan in this film is also quite bland, with a bitch on the UK math team that eventually ruined it. The romance between Mr. Humphrey and Nathan's mom didn't come to a full circle either. After all the kisses and such,did they marry each other finally or live together? There are a lot of things that leave the audiences to question and I personally don't like that. So the ending basically made the film worse. A lot of other things didn't come to full circle neither. How did the UK team do on IMO? Did nathan escape with Zhangmei or something happened(I just can't figure it out it's really vague at the end when Nathan holds Zhangmei's hand on the train)? When Mr. Humphrey locked the other man (I forget his name) in the IMO room what happened? At the end it just feels like: Oh what, that's it?But there are still some good things: the cultural exchange portraited in this film is quite interesting. And the fact that this film is about math and autism made it unique. It was nice to watch except at the end, and it kinda motivates me to study math.

garrettwhaynes The person that this movie was based on I am sure had a really hard time losing his dad and dealing with his autism, however in the movie the performance given by Asa Butterfield is as one dimensional as you can get. The majority of his scenes were him saying nothing at all, just sitting there with a dumb look on his face. FYI, please don't start criticizing me for this comment, I completely understand that he is portraying someone with autism and that they have a difficult time relating socially with people, what I am saying is that his portrayal just doesn't make for an interesting character in a film. His character was really boring. I am sure it is being true to life, but even at math he wasn't the best, he was just pretty good, at least good enough to get into a math Olympiad but barely! I am not sure what is supposed to be fascinating or interesting about this character? Even with his autism the portrayal of him in the movie was of a shy socially awkward teenager who says mean things to his mom and isn't as "clever" as other boys. This could have been any number of normal awkward teenage boys, even though this one happened to have autism, it didn't add anything unique to his character. They tried to show some scenes of him walking around and seeing all of the lights in the city in double, I am assuming they were trying to show his light sensitivity or his synesthesia but it wasn't portrayed very vividly or in any way where a "normal" person could go, "oh is that what that is like? wow!". It was just him seeing some "blurry" lights. The other character, Jake, was actually way more interesting and deep than Asa's character. He had real issues and was actually interesting. He said things, he struggled, he fought with his peers, he fixated on that Monty Python film clip, he scratched himself. The scene of him in the bathroom was great. Real emotion, depth, and struggle. However in that scene, Asa didn't even say anything!! He just stood there, again, with a dumb look on his face. I won't continue on and on, but I will just say the majority of the rest of the film was also cliché and slow. Girl meets awkward boy and falls for him anyway. Chinese girl who feels pushed to "succeed" for her family. Cliché idealized back flashes to main character and his dad. Etc. Etc. Overall really disappointed in this film.

SnoopyStyle Nathan Ellis (Asa Butterfield) is confused by normal human interactions. His father Michael told him that his superpower is his math abilities but Michael is killed in a car accident when he was a kid. His mother Julie (Sally Hawkins) struggles alone. At school, Nathan is bullied except for irreverent math teacher Martin Humphreys (Rafe Spall). They work towards the International Mathematics Olympiad which Martin was a former participant. Nathan gets accepted and sent to Taipei for math camp led by Richard (Eddie Marsan). He finds other socially awkward math geniuses and Zhang Mei who is often dismissed for being the niece of the Chinese team coach.The best scene is Sally Hawkins ordering Chinese takeout. This has some good characters, and some good scenes. Asa Butterfield plays autistic well. It would help the story by compressing several of the elements. Going to Taipei adds a little exoticism but it separated Nathan from his two important connections. The story would be more dramatic if he has to deal with Julie and Martin's budding romance. There is simply more possibilities if everybody stays together. The students are great character additions. The movie would work better by concentrating on math camp and staying at home.

Reno Rangan I was fascinated by its storyline, reviews and ratings, but it did not deliver what I was expected. In fact, it fell simple and dull because of the end. Some people will accept it, but not me. For me it was neither good nor bad. Sometimes I don't care even it was clichéd conclusion, if it's the best thing for the story to have. So this film tried to avoid it and there I lost my interest in this.Like I said the initial parts were very good. Had a very good character called Nathan, a teenage mathematics prodigy. The movie narrates his journey to prepare for participating in one of the most prestigious international competition to represent his country. He gets trained by a finest teacher in the country and remaining tells whether he makes it or not.Actually the film was partially based on one of the Britain's participants from the 2006's IMO, short for International Mathematical Olympiad. Directed by a documentary filmmaker who was inspired by one of his films based on the same theme involving the original main character from this movie.It's not a biography or a completely based on the real, it just inspired and changed entirely for the cinematic presentation. I thought, it was about a genius boy and the competition, but the romance track overhauled and took me as a surprise. Not bad at all, I liked the way the girl and the boy getting to know each other, like similar to the cultural exchange program. Excluding the ending part, it was a good film. That's what I felt, maybe it will be an awesome film for you. The only way to find out is to check it out by yourself.6/10