FilmFest Review: A Beautiful Young Mind

 — by Paula Treneer —

(Paula Treneer has been an avid film viewer and reviewer for film festivals in Seattle, Abu Dhabi  and Berlin. She will review select films of the Orcas Island Film Festival for Orcas Issues. To reviews the Film Festival schedule, go to www.orcasfilmfest.org)

OIFF Film Review: “A Beautiful Young Mind”, starring Asa Butterfield:

Orcas Island Film Fest October 9-12

Orcas Island Film Festival kicked off its impressive line-up of films with a preview showing of “A Beautiful Young Mind”, directed by Morgan Matthews, based on the real-life experiences of Daniel Lightwing, a young silver-medal winning math whiz who competed in the International Math Olympiad while dealing with the challenges of a social spectrum disorder.   Noteworthy performances include Asa Butterfield in the main role as Nathan, a young math prodigy diagnosed with a social spectrum disorder, Sally Hawkins as his somewhat incapable mother, and Rafe Spall as his math tutor, whose life achievements as a math whiz were challenged by his progressive muscular sclerosis.

The film journeys with Nathan from his early-life trauma of tragic paternal loss through his development as an awkward but gifted math prodigy whose tutor, played by Rafe Spall, provides many of the script’s humorous lines while himself dealing with a severe disability, finally culminating in his participation in the IMO and its aftermath.

The film’s strengths include beautiful cinematography and superb performances across the board, including Rafe Spall, the albeit brief appearance of the father, Martin McCann, and Alex Lawther in a minor role as another International Math Olympiad contestant who shone in another similar role as the young Alan Turing.

While the script purports to portray the challenges of a gifted young person challenged by social spectrum disorder, its reliance upon narrative clichés to communicate these challenges almost trivialized the portrayal of important social issues, i.e. the increasing awareness of the challenges faced by young adults diagnosed with social disorders and the importance of a nurturing and empowering environment.

The film’s title bears such a strong resemblance to Ron Howard’s film about John Nash, the gifted mathematician who succumbs to early mental illness, that one expects a somewhat more nuanced portrayal of the film’s protagonist than is yielded here. However, the film’s cross-cultural context of international competitors, combined with the training period in Taipei, provides a satisfying glimpse of the protagonist’s social development while providing the filmgoers with cultural diversity.