Young math prodigy has to learn to fit in with the world around him.
27 September 2018
My wife and I watched this movie on Amazon streaming, it turns out to be significantly better than I had hoped. 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. But that only is the starting point, the boy lost his father at a young age and being borderline autistic finds relating to others and having meaningful conversations very difficult. All he enjoys doing is mathematics.

Asa Butterfield is remarkably good as the boy, Nathan Ellis. He bonds with a maths teacher who helps him along and urges him to apply for the maths team. 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. A bit of a "Good Will Hunting" ending.
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