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A Reel Life film section

Issue: Autumn 2016

The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015) movie review

An Original Vision

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movie poster, The Man Who Knew Infinity, Festivale film review; 252x365

Movie poster, The Man Who Knew Infinity
Great knowledge comes from the humblest of origins

Another beautiful mind? Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) lives in Madras, India. He cannot get a job as a mathematician because he has no degree, but he finally finds work as a clerk. His boss encourages him to apply to G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) at Cambridge for help in getting his work published.

He leaves behind his young wife, his mother, and everything he knows to follow the numbers. Crossing the seas is against his (Hindu) faith, but he does so, and he lives a precarious existence in Cambridge rooms maintaining his vegetarian diet in 1914.

For Ramanujan the struggle is to maintain his faith, and to balance the mathematics that appears in his head with the academic rigour that Hardy considers necessary for publication.

This is a simple story, told well. Ramanujan is not so well known as Sir Isaac Newton, but like Newton his work is still used today. The contribution of those who had to struggle to be heard is important to acknowledge, and to consider whenever governments and institutions make it more difficult for the talented-but-not-rich to have access to higher education.

The relationship between the devout young Ramanujan and the older atheist Hardy is difficult, mainly because Hardy is not good at friendships. But despite their differences, they forge a bond. It is the human relationships in the film that keep us watching.

Enjoyable and enlightening.



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by Ali Kayn
Australian release 5 May 2016
For credits and official site details, see below
Search Festivale for more work by the film-makers below.
See also:

See the trailer

See more films to be released in 2016

Just the facts:

Title: The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
Written by: Matt Brown (scr), Robert Kanigel (biography)
Directed by: Matt Brown
Running time: 108 mins
Rating: PG

The Players: Dev Patel, Jeremy Irons, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Northam, Devika Bhise, Toby Jones,

Official website:
IMDb entry

For session times of current films, use the cinema listings on the Movie links page. For scheduled release dates, see the coming attractions section.

For more information about this movie, check out the internet movie database (IMDb).
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