the audience applauded

Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Memorable, crazy movie

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

Watched this last night and I enjoyed it. The filmmakers did an excellent job of conveying what it is like for a family going through life with a child with Aspergers and when tragedy hits. All of the actors did a tremendous job and I especially enjoyed Asa Butterfield, he is a very talented young actor and puts his everything into roles like this. The ending was perfect and very touching for anyone who has lost someone they love and who is on their journey through life.

The person that this movie was based on I am sure had a really hard time losing his dad and dealing with his autism, however in the movie the performance given by Asa Butterfield is as one dimensional as you can get. The majority of his scenes were him saying nothing at all, just sitting there with a dumb look on his face. FYI, please don't start criticizing me for this comment, I completely understand that he is portraying someone with autism and that they have a difficult time relating socially with people, what I am saying is that his portrayal just doesn't make for an interesting character in a film. His character was really boring. I am sure it is being true to life, but even at math he wasn't the best, he was just pretty good, at least good enough to get into a math Olympiad but barely! I am not sure what is supposed to be fascinating or interesting about this character? Even with his autism the portrayal of him in the movie was of a shy socially awkward teenager who says mean things to his mom and isn't as "clever" as other boys. This could have been any number of normal awkward teenage boys, even though this one happened to have autism, it didn't add anything unique to his character. They tried to show some scenes of him walking around and seeing all of the lights in the city in double, I am assuming they were trying to show his light sensitivity or his synesthesia but it wasn't portrayed very vividly or in any way where a "normal" person could go, "oh is that what that is like? wow!". It was just him seeing some "blurry" lights. The other character, Jake, was actually way more interesting and deep than Asa's character. He had real issues and was actually interesting. He said things, he struggled, he fought with his peers, he fixated on that Monty Python film clip, he scratched himself. The scene of him in the bathroom was great. Real emotion, depth, and struggle. However in that scene, Asa didn't even say anything!! He just stood there, again, with a dumb look on his face. I won't continue on and on, but I will just say the majority of the rest of the film was also cliché and slow. Girl meets awkward boy and falls for him anyway. Chinese girl who feels pushed to "succeed" for her family. Cliché idealized back flashes to main character and his dad. Etc. Etc. Overall really disappointed in this film.

(spoilers) In an early scene a young boy, Nathan Ellis, and his parents are in a doctor's office where the news is delivered that Nathan is on the autism spectrum, combined with synesthesia in response to changes in light and pattern. It is explained that Nathan will have emotional challenges that will stay with him for the rest of his life. With that setup I was thinking that this movie would be a serious examination of how Nathan would deal with his challenges, but what unfolds is more scripted for audience appeal than thoughtful drama. Outside the first scene with the doctor there is no further intervention by a professional and Nathan and his parents are left to struggle on their own. As a young boy Nathan is in a car crash (graphically filmed) where his father is killed and he survives. That would have a serious effect on any young boy, but Nathan's father seemed to be the only person who elicited some positive emotional response from Nathan. The main result of the accident is that Nathan is left with his mother Julia who desperately wants him to be behave in ways that she wants--behavior that he is not capable of. Julia makes little attempt to understand who Nathan is and how he sees the world.A defining characteristic of autism is difficulty with social interactions. This is portrayed early on when Julia tries to force Nathan to hold her hand and he is so freaked out that he runs away. It irritated me that Julia would understand her son so poorly that she would try to force him to hold her hand--the data was in by that time as to how he would react. The most serious misrepresentation offered here is that normal life experiences can result in an essential cure of autism. I was left with the impression that autism is something that can be outgrown, contrary to the doctor's diagnosis in the early scene. The script jumps through a lot of hoops so that the story could climax with a totally unbelievable tear-filled hug between Nathan and his mother. Nathan had shown little feeling for his mother up to that time, except disdain, and I was expected to believe that the disconnect with her could be reversed in an instant?Moving on from the lack of seriousness in addressing Nathan's autism in any detail, it turns out that Nathan is a high achieving autistic person, being a gifted mathematician. He is chosen to represent the UK on a team of high schoolers at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Taiwan. He travels there to compete and we are required to watch scripted scenes that would never happen the way they are portrayed. For one thing, it is a stretch to have Nathan go to a big city, supervised only by an obnoxious team captain, when he had shown little ability to function independently. Being thrown into close contact with so many kids his own age in a foreign environment would have been a total anxiety ridden trauma, and not an experience edging Nathan toward normalcy. In one scene Nathan wanders the streets of Taiwan alone where he is assaulted and overwhelmed by the noise and lights. I guess his confused reaction to the lights is meant to reflect his supposed synesthesia, but that is not how synesthesia manifests. The group of mathematicians at the Olympiad conform to the stereotype of such people as being weird and spouting such nonsense as reciting the digits of pi and the Fibonacci sequence--such behavior at that level would be viewed as hopelessly juvenile. Nathan meets a girl at the Olympiad who triggers an empathetic response from him that is out of the realm of what one would expect from him. He is thus then transformed to a not atypical shy, awkward teenager.As if there were not enough plot threads that are not followed up, Nathan's tutor Martin is introduced. Martin is an alcoholic suffering from MS; one scene has him in an MS group meeting where he unloads on what a bleak future he is facing. Martin and Nathan's mother develop a relationship to play on your sympathies. The screenwriter must have been striving for emotional overload in introducing Martin and his relationship with Julia. By the end I felt that the demand on my reserves of sympathy had been exceeded.Asa Butterfield, as Nathan, is good, but I am never sure how much talent is required to play a person with a limited emotional range. I liked Rafe Spall as Martin.I find no humor in seeing people shove French fries up their noses, not in "A Fish Called Wanda," and not here. I could excuse this if it had been kids doing this, but it was the adults.The modest score serves mainly as a guide to what sort of emotional response is desired.There is enough material here for a half dozen stories if depth were a criterion, which it apparently was not.If you want an inside look from a literate high performing autistic person, read any of Temple Grandin's excellent books.

I was fascinated by its storyline, reviews and ratings, but it did not deliver what I was expected. In fact, it fell simple and dull because of the end. Some people will accept it, but not me. For me it was neither good nor bad. Sometimes I don't care even it was clichéd conclusion, if it's the best thing for the story to have. So this film tried to avoid it and there I lost my interest in this.Like I said the initial parts were very good. Had a very good character called Nathan, a teenage mathematics prodigy. The movie narrates his journey to prepare for participating in one of the most prestigious international competition to represent his country. He gets trained by a finest teacher in the country and remaining tells whether he makes it or not.Actually the film was partially based on one of the Britain's participants from the 2006's IMO, short for International Mathematical Olympiad. Directed by a documentary filmmaker who was inspired by one of his films based on the same theme involving the original main character from this movie.It's not a biography or a completely based on the real, it just inspired and changed entirely for the cinematic presentation. I thought, it was about a genius boy and the competition, but the romance track overhauled and took me as a surprise. Not bad at all, I liked the way the girl and the boy getting to know each other, like similar to the cultural exchange program. Excluding the ending part, it was a good film. That's what I felt, maybe it will be an awesome film for you. The only way to find out is to check it out by yourself.6/10