The Man Who Knew Infinity

Playing brilliant Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, Dev Patel (Slumdog Millionaire) engages the heart as well as the mind. A self-educated clerk from a poor Brahmin family, Ramanujan overcame incredible odds, influencing the later work of Stephen Hawking (whose story was told in The Theory of Everything) and Alan Turing (subject of The Imitation Game). Although writer-director Matthew Brown strikes a more conventional bio-pic tone, he nevertheless weaves a compelling tale of passion and perseverance. Ramanujan's story begins in 1913 in Madras, where his shipping-house employer suggests that Ramanujan send his complex mathematical theorems to Professor G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons) in Cambridge. Encouraged by colleague John Littlewood (Toby Jones), Hardy dispatches an invitation to England. Defying tradition, the timid yet intense Ramanujan leaves his overly-possessive mother and devoted young wife, traveling 6,000 miles to Trinity College, where he faces not only academic derision but also racial discrimination as clubby faculty members refer to him disdainfully as “Gunga Din.” A vegetarian, Ramanujan can't eat the food served in the dorms, so he cooks soups in the fireplace in his quarters, a task that grows increasingly challenging with wartime rationing. Intellectually bonding through discussions of primes and partitions, Ramanujan and Hardy take vastly different approaches to their discipline. A devout Hindu, Ramanujan believes his intuitive knowledge is God's gift, while pragmatic, agnostic Hardy demands rigorous “proofs” to substantiate calculations. Their relationship is at the center of this solid, engaging film that benefits from fine performances by Patel and Irons. Recommended. (S. Granger)