X+Y (2015)

Good movie but grossly overrated

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

This movie is about a child who is autistic but has a unique interest in maths. The ending of this movie takes a drastic change that we would have never thought of. I can say that Asa Butterfield did a great job acting as an autistic child but I don't think I can say the same for Rafe Spalls who is his teacher. The story also needed a bit more polishing I think. In all the movie is good and is definitely watchable.

(spoilers) In an early scene a young boy, Nathan Ellis, and his parents are in a doctor's office where the news is delivered that Nathan is on the autism spectrum, combined with synesthesia in response to changes in light and pattern. It is explained that Nathan will have emotional challenges that will stay with him for the rest of his life. With that setup I was thinking that this movie would be a serious examination of how Nathan would deal with his challenges, but what unfolds is more scripted for audience appeal than thoughtful drama. Outside the first scene with the doctor there is no further intervention by a professional and Nathan and his parents are left to struggle on their own. As a young boy Nathan is in a car crash (graphically filmed) where his father is killed and he survives. That would have a serious effect on any young boy, but Nathan's father seemed to be the only person who elicited some positive emotional response from Nathan. The main result of the accident is that Nathan is left with his mother Julia who desperately wants him to be behave in ways that she wants--behavior that he is not capable of. Julia makes little attempt to understand who Nathan is and how he sees the world.A defining characteristic of autism is difficulty with social interactions. This is portrayed early on when Julia tries to force Nathan to hold her hand and he is so freaked out that he runs away. It irritated me that Julia would understand her son so poorly that she would try to force him to hold her hand--the data was in by that time as to how he would react. The most serious misrepresentation offered here is that normal life experiences can result in an essential cure of autism. I was left with the impression that autism is something that can be outgrown, contrary to the doctor's diagnosis in the early scene. The script jumps through a lot of hoops so that the story could climax with a totally unbelievable tear-filled hug between Nathan and his mother. Nathan had shown little feeling for his mother up to that time, except disdain, and I was expected to believe that the disconnect with her could be reversed in an instant?Moving on from the lack of seriousness in addressing Nathan's autism in any detail, it turns out that Nathan is a high achieving autistic person, being a gifted mathematician. He is chosen to represent the UK on a team of high schoolers at the International Mathematics Olympiad in Taiwan. He travels there to compete and we are required to watch scripted scenes that would never happen the way they are portrayed. For one thing, it is a stretch to have Nathan go to a big city, supervised only by an obnoxious team captain, when he had shown little ability to function independently. Being thrown into close contact with so many kids his own age in a foreign environment would have been a total anxiety ridden trauma, and not an experience edging Nathan toward normalcy. In one scene Nathan wanders the streets of Taiwan alone where he is assaulted and overwhelmed by the noise and lights. I guess his confused reaction to the lights is meant to reflect his supposed synesthesia, but that is not how synesthesia manifests. The group of mathematicians at the Olympiad conform to the stereotype of such people as being weird and spouting such nonsense as reciting the digits of pi and the Fibonacci sequence--such behavior at that level would be viewed as hopelessly juvenile. Nathan meets a girl at the Olympiad who triggers an empathetic response from him that is out of the realm of what one would expect from him. He is thus then transformed to a not atypical shy, awkward teenager.As if there were not enough plot threads that are not followed up, Nathan's tutor Martin is introduced. Martin is an alcoholic suffering from MS; one scene has him in an MS group meeting where he unloads on what a bleak future he is facing. Martin and Nathan's mother develop a relationship to play on your sympathies. The screenwriter must have been striving for emotional overload in introducing Martin and his relationship with Julia. By the end I felt that the demand on my reserves of sympathy had been exceeded.Asa Butterfield, as Nathan, is good, but I am never sure how much talent is required to play a person with a limited emotional range. I liked Rafe Spall as Martin.I find no humor in seeing people shove French fries up their noses, not in "A Fish Called Wanda," and not here. I could excuse this if it had been kids doing this, but it was the adults.The modest score serves mainly as a guide to what sort of emotional response is desired.There is enough material here for a half dozen stories if depth were a criterion, which it apparently was not.If you want an inside look from a literate high performing autistic person, read any of Temple Grandin's excellent books.

Nathan (Asa Butterfield) hits the "based on a true story" trifecta as a math prodigy who's solidly on the spectrum and suffers from PTSD. As with other such movies we've seen, including "Philomena" and "The Imitation Game," this one's quite watchable but a little disappointing—seems like the script had to be tinkered with too much to fill out the standard story arc and meet the expectations of mainstream viewers. This is docmaker Morgan Matthews's first fiction film, and in the best scenes, Nathan's just wandering around Taipei with his Chinese study buddy (Jo Yang), Hou Hsiao-hsien–style. Somehow the relationships between Nathan, his neuronormal mum and his tutor—a disappointed guy who makes bitter, though sometime very funny little jokes about his debilitating illness—didn't quite click for me. I was looking forward to a Mike Leigh stock-company reunion, what with Eddie Marsan and Rafe (son of Timothy) Spall, though I'm worried that fabulous Sally Hawkins ("Happy-Go-Lucky") might be getting typecast these days as the fubsy, put-upon mum (cf. Woody's "Blue Jasmine"). Despite the weaknesses of the screenplay, the performances were all first rate—Jake Davies totally nails it as a would-be Math Olympian who's afraid he's not quite "clever" enough (for his abrasive aspie mannerisms to pass muster). Kudos to the screenwriter (or the "maths" consultant or whoever) for picking a number-theory problem for Nathan to solve in a way that even a dummy like me could follow

This film twisted and turned my emotions in so many ways. It's so simple in it's execution yet extremely heavy in all the themes it presents. All the characters have their own hardships that they must try to overcome however difficult it may be for them and they're all searching for that one silver lining that can carry them through. The acting is incredible from everyone, no matter how much screen time they had, and they all left some sort of lasting effect on the film.I wasn't Asa Butterfield's biggest fan but he's completely changed my mind with this performance; he was perfect. Such minimal dialogue yet so much to say through his body language and expressions. He perfectly captured the behaviour and mindset of a socially inept individual in a world of his own who's still mourning the loss of his Dad, the one person in his life who understood how to communicate with him and make him feel less of an outsider than he always felt. Such a tender and moving turn and I loved his relationship with Zhang Mei (Jo Yang), who was also terrific and a ray of sunshine.Eddie Marsan continues to show his infinite versatility. I had no idea what sort of character he'd be playing but I knew he'd be fantastic as always. He brought the most laughs out of the film and reminded me of a few teachers I came across during my time living in England. Rafe Spall and Sally Hawkins though.....just wow. I could write pages and pages of their performances but I'll just say that Hawkins work in Happy-Go-Lucky (which I consider one of the best of the decade gone by) finally has a worthy rival and Spall's obvious ability has been unlocked to full potential here. Hawkins is the true emotional anchor to this film; a mother/widow who's loneliness can be felt with great force as she deals with her Husband's death but also longs for the same sort of affection from Nathan that he had with his Dad. Having difficulty connecting to her son, she turns to his Math teacher, Martin Humphreys (Rafe Spall) hoping he would be that person who could plug that hole of vast emptiness. But Humphreys has his own issues, carrying a crippling disease known as Multiple sclerosis, and he can't live the life he wants to anymore because of it. Spall skillfully creates a multi-dimensional character, ranging from a cocky, jester and virile individual to one who, underneath it all, is petrified about the future that awaits him. Amongst this hugely talented cast however, one must give a special mention to young newcomer Jake Davies who steals every scene he's given. He's the sort of person that, if you met him in real life and didn't know what he was going through, would be easy to hate -- but he may have been the most troubled one of them all. The only existence that was keeping his head above the water was mathematics; it kept his brain from thinking about the things he didn't want to think about, the things that unhinged him. So he had that incessant nature about him in that he had no choice but to try and perfect this one aspect that had taken ahold of his life. Making friends was almost impossible due to his abrasive personality, but it was something he couldn't control. When he ultimately fails doing the thing he only knew how to do and loved, it's a heartbreaking meltdown. There's a sequence where he recites the famous 'Parrot Sketch' from 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' and it's acted with great tenacity, but he saves the best for last in a devastating outpouring and heart to heart with Nathan. I hope to see more of his work in the coming future because he was simply brilliant.It's a shame this film got such limited buzz; it's one of those rare, beautifully crafted pieces of work that comes by and bowls you over. A story that is essentially about people looking for the answer to life itself, one formula that even the greatest mathematicians may never solve.