Morgan Matthews' A
Brilliant Young Mind (formerly X + Y) is a film full of
equations, calculations, and math formulas 99% of the world could never crack.
In a way it's like a smaller scaled cousin of The
Theory of Everything or The Imitation Game, centering
on a young genius whose incredible intellect has set him outside of society's
norm. While figuring out how to solve a complicated numerical problem requires
very specific steps, finding the right emotional formula is less exact but can
be surprisingly rewarding.
Asa Butterfield plays Nathan, an unusually
gifted boy, obsessed with patterns, numbers, and finding the order in all
things. We come to figure out early on that he's "on the spectrum",
showing signs of Autism, and it poses a unique challenge to his blue collar
parents, Julie (Sally Hawkins) and Michael (Martin McCann). Nathan's social
awkwardness manifests in long periods of withdrawn silence, but his father
finds ways to get the boy to open up, mostly by being silly and sticking French
fries up his nose. But one day an accident takes Michael away, and disrupts the
order that is Nathan's life in a way he can never understand.
With his mother burdened by loneliness and
unable to communicate with her son, Nathan's intellectual needs are filled by
professor Martin Humphreys (Rafe Spall), a pot smoking former math Olympian
with multiple sclerosis. It doesn't take him long to see Nathan's full
potential, and enrolls him in the International Math Olympiad tryouts in
Taiwan, where his world is thrown upside down once again.
After a painfully slow start, the film
really opens up just as Nathan's world begins to open up to new possibilities.
While his ability to decipher near-impossible patterns is crucial, the story
really focuses on Nathan's emotional needs and of the people around him. And
what he needs more than anything else is companionship; a chance to be a
regular boy. At home he's an oddity whose intellect causes him to shun his own
mother, “You’re not clever enough,” he tells her at one point. But
in Taiwan among a group of equal acumen, he's considered average at best, and
needs to find something new within himself to be the best. We see him bond with
Zhang Mei (Jo Yang), a Chinese competitor who helps him overcome social
anxieties and break out of his shell. He also learns a thing or two about
dealing with bullies, and how to open up his heart to love.
While James Graham's syrupy screenplay
tugs at the heartstrings a little too hard at times, this is a film that
largely benefits from the outpouring of emotion. Butterfield's performance is
mostly a physical one, revealing much about Nathan's fears in simple looks and
cautious movements. Hawkins and Spall are magic together, and it's a credit to
them and Graham's script that their story is strong enough to be a completely
separate movie. Yang brightens up every scene she shares with Butterfield, and
Eddie Marsan provides solid comic relief as Nathan's pushy instructor.
Matthews makes up for the relatively modest size of his film with clever
visual cues and splashes of color, all reflecting Nathan's mood. It's always touchy any time a film
attempts to depict the realities of autism, but A Brilliant Young Mind figures out the equation is care,
respect, and undeniable heart.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
