When we meet Indian mathematical genius Srinivasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel, playing serious), he is scrawling equations on the floor of a Hindu temple. Because for him, “an equation has no meaning unless it expresses a thought of God.” Take that, science vs. religion! But alas, God isn’t in the academic publishing business: for that, Ramanujan needs the help of the atheistic Professor Hardy at Trinity College in England (Jeremy Irons, his voice pouring out like syrup). Hardy doesn’t believe in what he can’t prove; Ramanujan is a prophet who can’t bear to waste time pausing to prove the revelations that flow from his pen, and English academia isn’t terribly impressed with either of them. (Ah, the dramatic ease of jacking the modern viewer with the sometimes casual, sometimes pointed racism of the bad old days.) And to boot, there’s a world war on, and both mother and wife pining away back in Madras. It’s all a bit much and a bit spot-on, but oh, is it ever lovely to look at and suffused with sincere emotion. (While the treacle reaches the brim, it doesn’t quite spill over.) Matthew Brown writes and directs and produces (2016) — Matthew Lickona
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