'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. But he likes patterns and orders which leads him to quickly discover that he is a maths genius. A high school teacher named Martin Humphries takes him under his wing and mentors him so that he achieves success in his quest to represent the British team in the International Mathematics Olympiad.
The film really is about an individual's struggle with loneliness and trying to find a place for yourself in a world that you can't relate to and where no one seems to understand you. 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. They all feel lonely and can't quite come to terms with it. The director Morgan Matthews does an admirable job in giving enough importance to every character. It is a humanistic film. You can feel that the director loves and understands his characters.
The acting is the strongest aspect of the film for me. Everyone is at the top of the game. Asa Butterfield plays the protagonist Nathan and does it brilliantly. When you are playing a character who is autistic and socially awkward, it can be a tough job and you run the risk of overacting. But he puts in a brilliantly nuanced performance and is always believable. Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall are also flawless. They give a lot of depth to their respective characters and force the viewers to feel their distress.
The film is well directed. The film is shot very well with a lot of intricate work done with bright colours on screen to accentuate Nathan's perspective and point of view. The pacing is also tight. But the screenplay written by James Graham felt very mechanical at times. The plot becomes a little too cheesy and there are some scenes that felt extremely predictable and very familiar due to their resemblance with scenes from other films dealing with similar story lines. 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. But the predictable and overly saccharine nature of the screenplay is detrimental to the overall quality of the film. But the acting and the characters make this film worth recommending for me.
The film really is about an individual's struggle with loneliness and trying to find a place for yourself in a world that you can't relate to and where no one seems to understand you. 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. They all feel lonely and can't quite come to terms with it. The director Morgan Matthews does an admirable job in giving enough importance to every character. It is a humanistic film. You can feel that the director loves and understands his characters.
The acting is the strongest aspect of the film for me. Everyone is at the top of the game. Asa Butterfield plays the protagonist Nathan and does it brilliantly. When you are playing a character who is autistic and socially awkward, it can be a tough job and you run the risk of overacting. But he puts in a brilliantly nuanced performance and is always believable. Sally Hawkins and Rafe Spall are also flawless. They give a lot of depth to their respective characters and force the viewers to feel their distress.
The film is well directed. The film is shot very well with a lot of intricate work done with bright colours on screen to accentuate Nathan's perspective and point of view. The pacing is also tight. But the screenplay written by James Graham felt very mechanical at times. The plot becomes a little too cheesy and there are some scenes that felt extremely predictable and very familiar due to their resemblance with scenes from other films dealing with similar story lines. 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. But the predictable and overly saccharine nature of the screenplay is detrimental to the overall quality of the film. But the acting and the characters make this film worth recommending for me.