The Man Who Knew Infinity (film)

The Man Who Knew Infinity

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Matthew Brown
Produced by Edward R. Pressman
Jim Young
Joe Thomas
Mark Montgomery
(Executive Producer)
Screenplay by Matthew Brown
Based on The Man Who Knew Infinity
by Robert Kanigel
Starring Dev Patel
Jeremy Irons
Devika Bhise
Toby Jones
Stephen Fry
Jeremy Northam
Kevin McNally
Enzo Cilenti
Music by Coby Brown
Cinematography Larry Smith
Edited by JC Bond
Production
company
Pressman Film
Xeitgeist Entertainment Group
Cayenne Pepper Productions
Distributed by Warner Bros.
(United Kingdom)
IFC Films[1]
(United States)
Release dates
  • September 17, 2015 (2015-09-17) (TIFF)
  • April 8, 2016 (2016-04-08) (UK)
  • April 29, 2016 (2016-04-29) (US)

[2]

Running time
 108 minutes
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Box office $11 million[3]

The Man Who Knew Infinity is a 2015 British biographical drama film based on the 1991 book of the same name by Robert Kanigel. The film stars Dev Patel as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a real-life mathematician who after growing up poor in Madras, India, earns admittance to Cambridge University during World War I, where he becomes a pioneer in mathematical theories with the guidance of his professor, G. H. Hardy, portrayed by Jeremy Irons.

Filming began in August 2014 at Trinity College, Cambridge.[4] The film had its world premiere as a gala presentation at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival,[1][5] and was selected as the opening gala of the 2015 Zurich Film Festival.[6] It also played other film festivals including Singapore International Film Festival[7] and Dubai International Film Festival.[8]

Distinguished mathematicians Manjul Bhargava and Ken Ono are associate producers of the film.[9] Ono, the mathematics consultant, is a Guggenheim Fellow, and Bhargava is a winner of the Fields Medal.

Plot

At the turn of the twentieth century, Srinivasa Ramanujan is a struggling and indigent citizen in the city of Madras in India working at menial jobs at the edge of poverty. While performing his menial labor, his employers notice that he seems to have exceptional skills at mathematics and they begin to make use of him for rudimentary accounting tasks. It becomes equally clear to his employers, who are college educated, that Ramanujan's mathematical insights exceed the simple accounting tasks they are assigning to him and soon they encourage him to make his personal writings in mathematics available to the general public and to start to contact professors of mathematics at universities by writing to them. One such letter is sent to G.H. Hardy, a famous mathematician at Cambridge University, who begins to take a special interest in Ramanujan.

Ramanujan at this time also marries while performing his menial labor and sending out his first publications. Hardy soon invites him to come to Cambridge to test Ramanujan's mettle as a potential theoretical mathematician. Ramanujan is overwhelmed by the opportunity and decides to pursue Hardy's offer to visit Cambridge University even though this means he must leave his wife for an extended period. He parts lovingly with his wife and promises to keep up his correspondence with her.

Upon arrival at Cambridge, Ramanujan is met with various forms of racial prejudice and finds his adjustment to England to be more difficult than expected, though Hardy is much impressed by the potential abilities which Ramanujan begins to put into real evidence during their contact with one another. Hardy remains concerned about Ramanujan's ability to communicate effectively due to Ramanujan's lack of experience in writing proofs, but with perseverance he manages to get Ramanujan published in a major journal. In the meantime, Ramanujan's health begins to suffer due to poor student living standards and his frequent letters home to his wife remain unanswered after many months. Hardy continues to see much more promise in Ramanujan, however he remains unaware of the personal difficulties his student is having with his housing and with his lack of contact with his family back home in India. Ramanujan's health worsens while he continues delving into deeper and more profound research interests in mathematics under the guidance of Hardy and others at Cambridge.

His wife, after much elapsed time, wonders at why she has not heard from Ramanujan and eventually discovers that his mother has been intercepting the letters which Ramanujan has been dutifully mailing to her and hiding dozens of them in the bottom drawer of a cabinet in their home in India. While still in England, Hardy takes special efforts to get Ramanujan's now recognizably exceptional mathematical skills to be fully accepted by his university by nominating Ramanujan for fellowship at Cambridge University. At first Hardy fails for reasons related to university politics and recurrent ethnic prejudice at the university at the time of World War One. By later gaining the support of key members of the faculty, Hardy then again nominates Ramanujan for fellowship and he is finally accepted as a Fellow of the College. Ramanujan is eventually reunited with his family in India though his declining health suffered from poor housing and harsh winter weather in England ultimately take their toll and lead to his premature death after he has finally become recognized as a mathematician of international merit and importance.

Cast

While Irons is more than 40 years Patel's senior, the real Hardy was only 10 years older than Ramanujan.

Reception

Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 63% of critics gave the film a positive rating, based on 96 reviews with an average score of 6.1/10. The critics' consensus reads: "The Man Who Knew Infinity might be a tad too conventional to truly do its subject justice, but Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons elevate the end result beyond mere biopic formula."[10]

After the film's world premiere, Allan Hunter in Screen Daily found the film to be "a well-heeled, sincere production following the memories of Ramanujan’s English mentor and friend... The film tells such a good story that it is hard to resist. The old-fashioned virtues of a well-told tale and a particularly fine performance from Jeremy Irons should endear the film to that supposedly under-served older demographic who like to turn out for a weekday matinee... Mathematics plays a key role in the story, but in a way that is entirely accessible, allowing the viewer to comprehend the advances that Ramanujan made and why his legacy remains so important almost a century after his death." [11] Deborah Young in The Hollywood Reporter found the film to be a "respectable but all too conventional biopic".[12]

The film has been praised by mathematicians and scientists for its authentic portrayal of theoretical mathematicians. Instead of a perfunctory treatment of mathematics, the film engaged the mathematicians Ken Ono and Manjul Bhargava to get the mathematics right. George E. Andrews, former President of the American Mathematical Society praised the film for its moving portrayal of the deep relationship between Ramanujan and Hardy.[13] The London Mathematical Society proclaimed that the film "outshines Good Will Hunting in almost every way".[14] Reviewing the film for Nature, Andrew Robinson wrote that "the film took more than ten years to create. It is worth the wait."[15]

Release

Mister Smith Entertainment handled international sales of the film.[16] Warner Bros. had released the film in the United Kingdom on April 8, 2016. IFC Films had released it in the U.S. on April 29, 2016.[17]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Matt Brennan (14 October 2015). "IFC Films Acquires Math Genius Biopic 'The Man Who Knew Infinity,' with Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel". Indiewire / Thompson on Hollywood!. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  2. ↑ "Release Info". IMDB. IMDB. Retrieved 20 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 23, 2016.
  4. ↑ "Dev Patel's 'The Man Who Knew Infinity' Moves to Production After 8 Years in Development". Variety. Retrieved 2016-01-07.
  5. ↑ "The Man Who Knew Infinity [programme note]". TIFF.net. Toronto International Film Festival. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  6. ↑ Zack Sharf (25 August 2015). "'The Man Who Knew Infinity' Selected as Zurich Film Festival Opening Night Film". Indiewire. Retrieved 24 February 2016.
  7. ↑ "The Man Who Knew Infinity". SGIFF. 2015. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  8. ↑ "The Man Who Knew Infinity". DIFF. 2016. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  9. ↑ Desikan, Shubashree (2015-09-18). "A fresh insight into Ramanujan". The Hindu. Retrieved 2016-04-07.
  10. ↑ "The Man Who Knew Infinity (2016)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  11. ↑ Allan Hunter (15 September 2015). "`The Man Who Knew Infinity': Review". Screen Daily. Retrieved 26 February 2016.
  12. ↑ Deborah Young (14 September 2015). "'The Man Who Knew Infinity': TIFF Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 24 February 2016. Brown’s screenplay brings math into the dialogue often and without embarrassment.
  13. ↑ George Andrews (February 2016). "Film Review: 'The Man Who Knew Infinity'" (PDF). Notices of the American Mathematical Society.
  14. ↑ Armando Martino and David Singerman (March 2016). "'The Man Who Knew Infinity: film review':". London Mathematical Society Newsletter.
  15. ↑ Andrew Robinson (March 31, 2016). "'Film: In search of Ramanujan':". Nature.
  16. ↑ http://deadline.com/2015/09/the-man-who-knew-infinity-exclusive-clip-1201519730/
  17. ↑ Matt Brennan (14 October 2015). "IFC Films Acquires Math Genius Biopic 'The Man Who Knew Infinity,' with Jeremy Irons and Dev Patel". Indiewire / Thompson on Hollywood!. Retrieved 24 February 2016.

External links

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