A Brilliant Young Mind Doesn't Add Up

This doc-turned-drama is better at heart than head.

By Amy Wolfe

The formula for genius moviemaking is "underdog – loving parent + conflicted mentor = successful public performance." Exhibit A: Step Up.

The math in A Brilliant Young Mind may be more cerebral, but the movie isn't. Autistic genius Nathan (Asa Butterfield) struggles with expressing emotions. After losing his father, Nathan pairs up with his pot-smoking tutor, Mr. Humphreys (Rafe Spall), who's experiencing setbacks of his own—especially sexual—from living with multiple sclerosis. Humphreys coaches Nathan to qualify for an International Mathematical Olympiad in Taiwan, where Nathan dreams of joining a team of painfully annoying, young intellectuals.

This fiction version of director Morgan Matthews' 2007 documentary is a coming-of-age film that goes nowhere for all its globe-trotting. Nathan's growing pains paired with Mr. Humphreys' literal pains poise their characters for development, but instead the two just seem stuck and stoned. While Butterfield's rendition of autism—blank stares and awkward silence—may have truth to it, it slows the storyline to an unfortunate halt. It is comical when Nathan discusses his Olympiad crush with his hopeful, passionate mother, but painfully awkward scenes where he and training partner Jo Yang (Zhang Mei) navigate teenage lust feel more clumsy than insightful. Nathan, who inexplicably learned Mandarin in the first 20 seconds of the film, has no clue what he's doing in the female department. But do we need to live that, in real time? Perhaps the worst decision of all was matching Nathan's lonely mom, Julie, with deadbeat Humphreys, creating a great support system for Nathan but a dry cinematic love story.

What the film does offer is an intimate look at living with autism. The quality acting comes from Sally Hawkins as Julie, perfectly frustrated as she struggles to get Nathan's lunch perfect—every item must be a prime number. Witnessing Nathan's "special powers," as his dad called them, may give the film its spectacle, but its soul is in the relationships Nathan struggles to build. When Mind drops the whiz act and focuses on Nathan's fear of holding his mother's hand—that's when the figures check.

Critic's Grade: C+

SEE it: A Brilliant Young Mind is not rated. It opens Friday at Living Room Theaters.

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