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The biographical drama "The Man Who Knew Infinity" tells of one of the world's most brilliant mathematicians, but only sometimes reaches past the prosaic.
The movie stars Dev Patel ("Slumdog Millionaire") as Srinivasa Ramanujan, a poor clerk in Madras, India, circa 1914, who compiled notebooks full of complex and sometimes elegant mathematical formulae he devised. His work ultimately gains the attention of the British mathematician G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), who recognizes Ramanujan's genius and brings him to Trinity College, Cambridge. Ramanujan leaves behind his dutiful wife, Janaki (Denika Boise), for England, only to find Hardy's insistence on rigorous proofs of his theorems is at odds with Ramanujan's desire to devise even more formulae.
Writer-director Matthew Brown aims for a thoughtful dialectic, with Hardy's atheism and scientific process up against Ramanujan's belief that math brings him closer to understanding God. But that noble theme is obscured by a traditional biopic structure that stresses process over philosophy and, true to Hollywood whitewashing, gives Irons a meatier part than Patel's.
'The Man Who Knew Infinity'
Opening Friday, May 13, at area theaters; rated PG-13 for some thematic elements and smoking; 108 minutes.