X + Y * * 1/2

Actually I think there is a bit more to it than that.  What other letters do these mathematical guys use?  A + B I think.  How would I know,? I can’t even do simple adding up without a calculator. But I usually know if things aren't quite adding up in a film. Then again, maybe I can't do that either.

Nathan is an autistic boy with a very loving mother  who suffers the pain of being shunned by him.  But he is brilliant at maths so she enrolls him in a school with a teacher who specialises in advanced maths students.  He is selected to be in the English Team for the International Mathematics Olympiad in Taiwan which is a pretty good story in its own right: autistic boy has to travel overseas and perform.  But X + Y carries too much baggage of secondary stories: his relationship with his Mum, his relationship with a girl, his need to get over his father's death, his need to let people actually touch him, his Mum's relationship with his teacher.  It felt like all the stories were put in a line and bulldozed forward together, which is a shame. It was particularly odd when we were finally moving toward a resolution on one story, only to have the whole drama conclude by giving us a remarkably fast resolution of another story; one that had always been bubbling under, but didn't really seem to be the major theme.

But it still a very pleasant drama and extremely well acted. with a roll call of some fine English actors. Asa Butterfield as Nathan was very convincing,  Sally Hawkins plays his Mum and she’s always good.  Rafe Spall plays Humphreys the teacher and Eddie Marsen plays the minder and coach of the kids on the Mathematical Olympiad (he is also some vague nemesis of Humphreys  which is another theme they seem to pick up and put down again).   You’ll be happily entertained by this and some of its moments do sparkle, but for me, due to the factor of A+B (as well as C,D and E) X + Y didn't quite add up to a perfect whole.