The Man Who Knew Infinity

Time Out by

Polite, earnest stuff, but it never quite adds up to much.

Screen International by Allan Hunter

The film is unashamedly middle-brow and sentimental but it tells such a good story that it is hard to resist.

Village Voice by Bilge Ebiri

In the end, The Man Who Knew Infinity never allows itself to transcend the sad irony of such biopics — that people known for thinking outside the box are always given film portraits that refuse to do so.

The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young

Highly engaging performances by Dev Patel in the lead role and Jeremy Irons as his curmudgeonly mentor gradually warm up the Cambridge story, but the Indian part feels perfunctory and unconvincing.

The Film Stage by Jared Mobarak

We aren’t given this glorious journey of a genius plucked from obscurity as much as we are the trials and tribulations of success. Brown’s film is all about the hardships thrust upon Ramanujan.

Variety by Justin Chang

The arguments between Ramanujan and Hardy form easily the most absorbing aspect of The Man Who Knew Infinity, as their eloquent clash of wills is shown to be not just intellectual but ideological in nature.

The A.V. Club by Katie Rife

This is the very definition of the kind of movie people complain that “they” don’t make anymore: a modestly budgeted, character-driven drama for adults that doesn’t insult the viewer’s intelligence or lean on shock value.

RogerEbert.com by Susan Wloszczyna

Irons is the gawky one. His Hardy is a socially inept bachelor who is ill-suited to the role of nurturing mentor and father figure.

The Telegraph by Tim Robey

Irons’s Hardy steals this film away from its ostensible hero, in part because pulling the shutters down makes him that much harder to know.