X+Y

Plot synopsis:
Nathan Ellis, a 9-year-old math prodigy, has just lost his father in a car accident. Nathan is diagnosed as autistic early in the film, but strangely, his father was the only one who was able to connect normally with him. Although Nathan values his mother, Julie, he shuns any physical contact with her and treats her as more of a caretaker than a parent. Wanting to make sure Nathan isn’t distracted from his studies, Julie enrolls him in advanced classes at a new school. There, he comes under the tutelage of teacher Martin, also a math genius, who now suffers from multiple sclerosis. Martin sees himself in Nathan, once a promising young mind in the field of mathematics, who gave it all up once he was diagnosed with his illness.
Seven years later, Martin is preparing Nathan to compete for a place in the International Mathematical Olympiad, a prestigious high school competition consisting of the world’s best young mathematicians. This year, it is to be held at Cambridge, after a two-week math camp in Taiwan where the students will study for the test that determines the winners. Nathan fears he’s not good enough to qualify but ends up doing well enough to accompany 15 other British teenagers to Taiwan.
Suddenly thrust out of his comfort zone, Nathan finds himself no longer the smartest math whiz in the room, and his social anxieties nearly paralyze his performance. He has trouble reading the social cues of others and flinches at the slightest physical contact with another person. Nathan is paired with a female Chinese student, Zhang Mei, who slowly helps him adjust to his new surroundings and helps him fight through his fears. By the skin of their teeth, Nathan and Zhang make the cut to compete in Cambridge.
Back in England, Zhang stays with Nathan and his mum, who’s shocked to find that his behavior has transformed into something more normal. She becomes aware that he may have feelings for Zhang, which she asks him. Not fully understanding the concept of love, Nathan is unsure how to express his feelings. He keeps his emotions bottled up as they all travel to Cambridge and settle in for the Olympiad.
Things quickly unravel when Zhang’s uncle catches her in Nathan’s room one morning and mistakenly accuses them of being in an intimate relationship. This causes Zhang to withdraw from the competition and leave. Nathan, who now believes he loves Zhang, is torn between her and the Olympiad. When he sits down among hundreds of other students around the world for the exam, the first question triggers memories of his dead father, which combined with his newly lost love, creates an emotional overload. At the pinnacle moment of his mathematical career, Nathan must make a decision whether to stay and pursue his dream, or give into the pain that’s haunted him for most of his life.

Tags: romantic, flashback

Review:
The characters were beautifully written and performed by the stellar cast, but I feel a special mention has to be given to three of the actors in particular: Asa Butterfield, who portrays Nathan with such grace and skill, and captures the mannerisms and inner struggles of those on the spectrum brilliantly.
This ended up being one of my favorite movies of this year, but I feel like many people will not give it a chance for several reasons, but mainly the subject matter."It" is a delicate petal to step around to a lot of people.
Technically perfect, with a script so polished it gleams, and acting so sharp that even the secondary roles stay in your head long after the credits roll.Butterfield's character is a young boy with Autism who, as a result, may or may not be a world class math prodigy.
The point of the story however is not whether his character will win a math Olympics but rather if he will ever become a functioning human being.Butterfield, in a cast of greats, stands out.
Hawkins does not allow this.It is an excellent film, more a journey than a destination, and therefore not for everyone.My favourite scene -- the one I will remember for a very long time -- is Butterfield with his (almost) Chinese girlfriend, eating some take-out.The container is opened and the number of comestibles inside is NOT a prime number.
Heading into early stages of MS, Hutchinson explains to Nathan a competition that he did in his youth and recommends he should enter it - the International Mathematics Olympiad, a world- wide competition similar to sporting, but rather than strong muscles, strong brains.Chosen as one of the sixteen entries from the UK, he then joins a worldly-mix of other competitors in what is probably the most difficult children's test in the world.At this point you realize how the story is going to end, along with the regular clichés.
Put into cheesy maths terms X+Y is: Great casting + dramatic story + comedy - clichés = success.Taking the on the central lead, Asa Butterfield (Ender's Game) stuns in the portrayal and authentically attaches us with emotion to his story.
The film manages to be a family drama, a coming of age movie with a dash of romance, and a comedy at the same time.
X+Y is a mild but powerful movie in the sense that it tells Nathan's story with no big emotions but always making us relate to him somehow, which is the best thing it could do.
However, this movies brings us a new perspective, not only on how gifted people deal with their emotional side, but especially on how the mathematics of life are unachievable to every human mind.
In the end the main character shows a little emotion and violin music plays and I'm supposed to give this movie 10 stars?
There's no tension to any of the scenes, despite the theatrical music that plays throughout, because the only thing that can/does happen in this movie is the main character not understanding or being able to function in social situations.
I'd like to say Asa Butterfield is the highlight, but Rafe Spall steals the show in a gruff sharp performance that channels his dad in a way that makes me look forward to what he's going to do next.
'A Brilliant Young Mind' is a very charming film which tells the story of a unique and gifted boy named Nathan, who was diagnosed with autism at an early age.
This theme is not just applicable for Nathan in the film, it transcends to other characters too like his mother Julie and his teacher Humphries.
You can feel that the director loves and understands his characters.The acting is the strongest aspect of the film for me.
The predictability and the slightly overused melodrama in the 2nd half of the film did take me out of the film to some extent and prevented me from liking the film as much as I would have wanted to.As a whole the film does work due to the brilliant performances from all actors concerned and due to the affectionate manner in which Matthews treats his characters.
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.
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.
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.
It's appropriate to pause and think about the world that not understand You, but you can express within a beautiful language and demonstrate anybody it's a perfectly gifted person.On the subject of acting Asa Butterfield make a good interpretation he could transmitted a desperate of a person who want to communicate but the world doesn't see him.
People who like the film since they feel it accurately portrays autism.
Your average movie-goer could be excused for thinking autistic people are all super-intelligent with a prodigious memory and especially brilliant at maths, and that mathematicians are all weird nerdy socially inept people.
Examples of these are Little Man Tate, Searching for Bobby Fischer, and Akeelah and the Bee. However, it's this film from director Morgan Matthews that is the first I can recall to combine all three elements.Mr. Matthews' directorial resume is filled with documentaries and he brings that no-nonsense approach to this story based on the life of David Lightwing, a young math genius with Asbergers.
Asa Butterfield plays Nathan, a boy whose only love is mathematics.
He lost his beloved father at an early age, and has since not connected with anyone  even his most devoted and long-suffering mother, played by Sally Hawkins.Nathan begins studying under Rafe Spall's Martin, himself a former child math prodigy, whose struggles with Multiple Sclerosis act as a defense mechanism that prevents him from having any semblance of a well-rounded life.
Martin has his own personal history with both the event and the team's coach, played by Eddie Marsan.The film does a really nice job of illuminating the pressures on both loved ones (parents, teachers, etc) and the prodigies themselves.
Young Butterfield, around 16 or 17 during filming, does a remarkable job playing a complex teenager.The subject is nominally a maths prodigy who gets the opportunity to be a member of a team representing England for the maths olympics.
All he enjoys doing is mathematics.Asa Butterfield is remarkably good as the boy, Nathan Ellis.
But when he gets to the far east where they will train with a Chinese team he is immediately a fish out of water with no idea how to fit in, but he gets help from a young Chinese girl, English actress Jo Yang as Zhang Mei, who likes Nathan and gives him a way to learn to be a better adjusted person.A really good movie.
I can say that Asa Butterfield did a great job acting as an autistic child but I don't think I can say the same for Rafe Spalls who is his teacher.
It's a film about a teenage boy who's not quite like everyone else, I believe autism was the diagnosis he was given.He does not communicate very well but is beyond smart, I am not a very good communicator myself so I can most definitely relate to that and there are some scenes that get genuinely emotional for me (and anyone else I imagine with half a heart).Perhaps I'd wish for a more complete ending but maybe that would been a little too Hollywoodesque and this is after all a movie that is very much rooted in reality so it made sense I suppose to end it the way they did.7.5/10..
This film tells the story of a autistic young man who is particularly gifted in mathematics.
X + Y is a small intimate film that is sporadically amusing but suffers from a lightness of plot and an ending which to me smacks of 'we could not of think of how to end this film so this is how we leave things.'Nathan (Asa Butterfield) is a high functioning autistic boy who excels in mathematics but cannot lacks displaying emotion to his mother (Sally Hawkins.) He lives an ordered life where he has his own rituals such as having certain types of food but he certainly not the touchy, feely kind of ladAs a young boy he was involved in a car accident that left his father dead.
Over the course of the film we find out that the younger Nathan had a connection with his father and his death has left with some unresolved emotions.Nathan gets extra maths tuition from his gruff school teacher (Rafe Spall) himself a child maths prodigy now struggling with Multiple Sclerosis.
The film takes a turn when Nathan is selected to go to Taiwan to be in with a chance of joining the British team competing to at the International Mathematics Olympiad to be held at Cambridge.
The team coach is played by Eddie Marsan who has to handle these various maths prodigies, a lot of them seem to nerds, geeks and high functioning autistic.Here he meets a girl who is part of the Chinese team which makes him look differently at the world and give him a chance to emotionally connect.I like the way film had some biting humour thanks to Marsan and Spall.
I could never understand how Nathan went from a maths prodigy to suddenly be able to learn Chinese or play the piano and there was a love triangle set up which went nowhere.However the ending felt too left field and left me dissatisfied..
Nathan (Asa Butterfield) hits the "based on a true story" trifecta as a math prodigy who's solidly on the spectrum and suffers from PTSD.
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.
First Asa "The boy in the striped pajamas" Butterfield who succeeded in playing the difficult character of Nathan in an admirable way.
When you're looking for one of the feel good movies of the year a film centred around the cut throat world of competitive mathematics and the mind of an autistic boy who lost his beloved father in a fatal car crash doesn't exactly scream out as a candidate but low and behold documentarian turned feature film director Morgan Matthews X + Y (also known as A Brilliant Young Mind) could well be the feel good film of the year.Creating a coming of age love story and trial against adversity narrative from his experiences documenting those with autism attending the International Mathematics Olympiad (title of that documentary is Beautiful Young Minds), the nerds version of the Olympics that is really one giant exam, fun right?
Matthews handles the films myriad clichés (you're never in too much doubt about where the story is headed, although the ending subverts expectations) with a deft touch so that the film never feels overly manipulative or even familiar despite its feel good playbook ticking's off and with a winning case X + Y delivers equal amounts of smarts, laughs and emotional punches.Last seen making a mark in Martin Scorsese's Hugo and long rumoured to be in the final runnings for the newest Spider-Man gig, Asa Butterfield delivers a considered and well put together turn as the "different" Nathan Ellis.
It's not at all an easy role and one that had it been overplayed or underplayed would've ruined the picture but Butterfield succeeds with flying colours and his interplay with the films experienced elder statesman in the form of Sally Hawkins, Eddie Marsan and in particular Rafe Spall create a winning case all round with any scene between Butterfield and Spall either outright hilarious or heart-warmingly sincere.I know I don't find maths in any way shape or form exciting but no matter how you feel about the beautiful world of numbers and problem solving X + Y will be a winner for the whole family.
Asa Butterfield played his role as a functionally autistic kid really well and it is the only reason why I enjoyed the movie.
Weird little kid: check, emotional trauma during childhood: check, well intentioned mother that struggles with life and motherhood: check, kind father figure with his own problems: check, young love: check, and so on and so on.Even if the script wouldn't have been specifically written in such a clumsy heavy handed manner, the story itself wasn't much to begin with.
But each situation was described as clumsily as the script was conceived: details that don't drive the story, like him learning Chinese or how to play the piano or meeting people that just disappear from the plot when they were becoming interesting or texts of mathematical problems, but lack of details where it mattered, the sense of competition, the way he felt about the little Chinese girl.I wanted to like the film, but it was impossible.
Lovely film and so many stunning performances, not just the main characters but all of the supporting cast.
Sally Hawkins was brilliant as the mother and Asa Butterfield is a star, his ability to convey so much through his eyes and facial expression (or lack of it) was brilliant for the character.Liked the scenes in Taiwan and got a good sense of Nathan's alienation and fascination with another culture, particularly its visual impact on him.The ending disappointed as it was almost suggesting Nathan was 'cured', I don't think this played true to the extent of his condition.
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.
Last week I went to the cinema to watch x+y, a British film about the journey of a brilliant math student until being part of the British team for the International Mathematics Olympiad.
His mother seems unwilling to understand his mind but thanks to a math teacher and his cleverness, he gets a place to attend at the International Mathematics Olympiad where he will meet several of the most brilliant minds in the world, included a Chinese girl who will completely change his life and his way of understanding the world.
I've given this movie (It was listed as X&Y on the TV subscription channel I was watching it on) a rating of 9; like many reviewers of this beautiful film, it would have been a 10 had the ending not jarred with the original premise of the film, which I took to be Autistic savant teen struggles socially at a Maths Olympiad, with a side story of how Mum copes *spoiler* as a single parent and how Nathan (the teen in question) finds love and tries to explain it logically.Of course, having a nineteen year old Aspergers son who at 15 years old won awards at space school for astrophysics, then sadly felt completely overwhelmed when trying for his A Levels at college, this movie was a real 'look' into my son's world for me.
Asa Butterfield was superb showing that you don't need words to get how you're truly feeling across, and the nervous socially inept struggles Nathan feels, are certainly true for my son, and of course, I couldn't help feeling for Mum, especially after years of little conversation, no real cuddles myself, but I will also say, there is dark humour in the movie; the Chinese prime number takeaway order ringing a 'laugh or you'll cry' moment in our house.There's lot of intricacies to this film which awash over you, but on second/third viewing come into focus; the girl who couldn't bear Nathan having another love interest, the beautiful cinematography that made you realise you were experiencing another country as a tourist would, and many more (the heartbreaking Parrot scene..I won't say anymore here; best experienced first hand).Literally the only reason this amazing film, scored a 9 rating instead of 10, was the complete confusion I experienced with the ending.
*SPOILER* It wasn't clear whether love, his Dad etc caused nearly all his autistic behaviour to disappear, and I felt like I'd watched a film that showed the struggle autistic young people go through, only to feel that 'oh OK, so if my son gets a girl, or gets over a past hurt in his life, all his rigidity will simply disappear'; I don't believe this would be the case, and my son agreed.So just my tuppence worth; and for all I've said, I do adore the film, the sadness, humour, understanding etc, and as it's Autism Week, I love that it's been brought to our attention more..
The acting is incredible from everyone, no matter how much screen time they had, and they all left some sort of lasting effect on the film.I wasn't Asa Butterfield's biggest fan but he's completely changed my mind with this performance; he was perfect.
Hawkins is the true emotional anchor to this film; a mother/widow who's loneliness can be felt with great force as she deals with her Husband's death but also longs for the same sort of affection from Nathan that he had with his Dad. Having difficulty connecting to her son, she turns to his Math teacher, Martin Humphreys (Rafe Spall) hoping he would be that person who could plug that hole of vast emptiness.
At the end it just feels like: Oh what, that's it?But there are still some good things: the cultural exchange portraited in this film is quite interesting.