The Man Who Knew Infinity * * 1/2

This rather reminded me of those Sunday night Disney films from the sixties which told the story of some famous person.

To be honest it’s a bit clunky and childishly sentimental and even a bit preachy. At one stage it makes the silly suggestion that the perfection found in numbers can only be a reflection of God's Handiwork. It’s got rather a dated feel about it.

Set 100 years ago it’s a true story apparently about a mathematical genius Ramanujan who was born in India. He never had much of a formal education but ended up at Cambridge where he left their Maths department in awe.  Apparently he was a true genius. As I am someone who is instantly  bamboozled by any equation that has a letter mixed in with numbers (what's that there for?!) I won’t be the one to question that.

Dev Patel (the go-to guy for all Indian roles these days) plays Ramanujan and Jeremy Irons plays GH Hardy, a very clever English mathematician who believed in Ramanujan even at the risk of his own reputation.

There is nothing really wrong with this film, it just plods along on a path so formulaic that whatever happens does not seem even remotely surprising - or interesting.

Someone should have told them formula might work in mathematics but it can be pretty boring in film-making.