If you can recall the frustration of getting the right answers in a school maths tests but being marked down for not explaining how you got there, you’ll relate to this film, for it’s essentially Show Your Working: The Movie. Sure, it’s not an eye-grabbing title (especially for those with mathlexia), but it does succinctly describe the main challenge faced by real-life mathematic genius Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) and collaborating Cambridge University professor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons).
The film is appropriately by-the-numbers, for the true story probably doesn’t lend itself to Oscar-worthy grandeur. The humble Ramanujan’s love for mathematical formations is at odds with Hardy’s love for barely anything. Hardy needs to teach Ramanujan how to provide proof to his astonishing discoveries if they are to be published, but doesn’t relate to Ramanujan’s affinity for, well, infinity. So when Hardy delivers cold criticism, it hits Ramanujan emotionally, and Patel and Irons work that intriguing dynamic wonderfully.
It’s a pleasant depiction of a mightily significant partnership in the field of mathematics (Ramanujan’s discoveries are vital to today’s understandings of the universe). It’s a shame some areas of the film feel disingenuous, like how every moment of racism skips subtlety and dials it straight up to 100. There’s also an exchange where Hardy suggests he’s not expected to speak Tamil, to where Ramanujan replies “Yet you expect me to speak English.” It’s a good burn, though it also draws attention to the film’s depiction of everyone in India speaking English anyway.
‘The Man Who Knew Infinity’ Movie Times
VOD Recommendations: The Theory of Everything, A Beautiful Mind, Footnote
