the tenderlysalted banana blog
Review: The Man Who Knew Infinity (2015)
Posted on May 16, 2016 by wolfreuben1
My little brother and I often argue about the measure of a man’s intelligence. I believe a man should have degrees and publications if he really wants to be appreciated as a man of true brilliance, my brother argues the opposite. It is movies like The Man Who Knew Infinity who usually come to my aide, for who would John Nash, Alan Turing, Stephen Hawking, and, now Srinivasa Ramanujan be without having their thoughts and their theorems in ink in distinguished journals? These, of course, have led to those subjects having their own biopics, and, one of the greater things about The Man Who Knew Infinity is that it seems to know this. Sometimes it touts those clichés we have come to know in the ‘Brilliant-Man-Biopic’ and sometimes it seems to make fun commentary on said clichés.
This shift in tone is rather confused in the film: in some ways it embraced those clichés in a tongue-in-cheek manner that I was clearly on board with, but sometimes it took itself too seriously. And, before any of this is resolved, we ended up with what seemed to be three different movies: one about the relationship between Ramanujan and the man who tried to give him a name, G.H. Hardy; a movie about war-torn England during WWI; and then the movie about the ill-fated and how great they are and were at the end.
The film begins with Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) as a young, much too qualified accountant in his native India. Pushed by his superior, he mails several theories he’s concocted over the years to G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), professor of mathematics at Trinity College. Through obstacles of oppression, war, and illness, Ramanujan and Hardy form a bond where they develop and improve upon mathematical theories, shaking up the very foundations of Trinity College’s mathematics department.
First, let me say that these types of films are made for actors to shine, and Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons take full advantage of this thing. Patel has fought his way from the depths of obscurity since what could have been his only great film credit, Slumdog Millionaire (2008). He always seems to give a wide-eyed child-like energy to his characters (see his ‘Existence of Bigfoot’ speeches from Aaron Sorkin’s underappreciated and short-lived The Newsroom). He is like a puppy dog that speaks with enticing rapidity. He is a talented actor, but it is often tough for a man of Indian descent to find good work in Hollywood (I often wonder if his skin tone was a shade in either direction, what type of career he would have right now. But that is a can of worms I don’t even want to touch). Irons (fresh off replacing Michael Caine as Bruce Wayne’s butler, Alfred, in Batman vs. Superman), is reliable as always. Irons, as Hardy, is staunch, tough, yet caring and human enough to recognize a person like Ramanujan should not exist in obscurity.
The movie makes some references to Isaac Newton, and I would like to as well: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. There are two characters that just didn’t work in this movie. One is Ramanujan’s wife, played by Devika Bhise. The early scenes between Ramanujan and his mother work very well. One scene in particular that was near gut wrenching and heart breaking. However, he then moves to say goodbye to his wife, and all that emotion deflated. There is no chemistry between Patel and Bhise. But I don’t blame Bhise for this lackluster characterization. The writing for her character is reduced to no more than the typical neigh-sayer a film like this needs and since Bhise was mentioned in the opening credits with the word ‘Introducing’ before her name, I believe that she has a lot of work ahead of her, but she definitely showed potential.
The other character was the most egregious and unnecessary of the lot. So much so that you will instantly recognize who and what this character is and represents by mere virtue of saying he is also a neigh-sayer, one who doesn’t believe in Ramanujan. No, wait, sees Ramanujan as a threat because his practices are quite unorthodox! At least Ramanujan’s wife is a necessary character for introspection into his life, this other character may or maynot have existed. He could have been put in there just to say things such as ‘You don’t belong here!’
I must mention that I know nothing of Ramanujan’s life or work. In fact, the only character that resonated at all with me was Bertrand Russell (where is the movie with his relationship with Wittgenstein already!). It is another performance worth noting, as Jeremy Northam really elevates the character past pure philosopher-myth. But the fact that I knew nothing of the story or its events put me at a peculiar advantageous disadvantage. The movie comes while spiritual predecessors The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything (both 2014). I knew where those movies were going because I knew the work of Alan Turing and Stephen Hawking. I was genuinely interested in Ramanujan’s story because I had no clue who he was, so the movie could have gone anywhere and I was up for the ride. In fact, I must give the film credit for not particularly focusing on Ramanujan’s struggle to create something so revolutionary which would have climaxed with a moment in these films I call the ‘Eureka!’ moment. Instead, our focus is on Ramanujan’s stay at Trinity College, which is a unique take for a biopic about this type of subject.
In my notes, I wrote the lines that could have been cliché in these types of films: “All I do is imagine,” “I’ve known greater numbers.” But then I wrote lines that are totally counter intuitive for these types of features. One such is when Ramanujan first arrives at Trinity and steps onto the grounds. John Littlewood (played by Toby Jones) comments that the sight of such a beautiful ground ‘the intended effect.’ I laughed a little at this line, because the scene is so overdone from other biopics.
One thing I wish the movie would have focused on is what it’s other goal was, the beauty of mathematics. When it does this, the movie works, but it is when we see Ramanujan’s obstacles that the movie falls apart. There is another line in the movie that also didn’t work for me. It is at the scene where Littlewood is showing Ramanujan the grounds at Trinity, pointing out the tree where Isaac Newton has ‘discovered’ gravity. Newton didn’t discover gravity, he crafted the theory of a gravitational pull, but gravity always existed. In a lesser film, this line would have taken me out of the entire film and has taken me out of some films. But The Man Who Knew Infinity rises above hum-drum biopic formulas and knows its characters are smarter than mere formulas.
Grade: B
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt. (Charles M. Schulz)
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