Film Review: Mother tries to connect with her autistic son, a math whiz, in 'A Brilliant Young Mind'

Though billed as a boy-genius story, A Brilliant Young Mind is really a tougher thing: a movie about the complex emotional lives of autistic children.

Title character Nathan (Asa Butterfield) is unable to engage with his devoted-but-frustrated single mom (Sally Hawkins), even though his heightened ability to detect patterns makes him a whiz at mathematics. So much so that, with the help of a special tutor (Rafe Spall) who serves as a surrogate father, Nathan qualifies for a chance to represent England in an international math olympiad.

This means he must leave behind his carefully structured life in England and attend a math camp in Taiwan, away from the support system and surroundings that give him comfort and allow him to function.

The noise and light and color of Taiwan are disconcerting, the other children competitive and unforgiving, but when he's paired off with a lovely Chinese girl (Jo Yang) from a rival team, his feelings about engaging the outside world begin to change.

A Brilliant Young Mind is adapted by director Morgan Matthews from his BBC documentary Brilliant Young Minds, about an actual British team in the olympiad. The team had several autistic members, four of whom medaled in the competition.

Morgan, though, jettisons the expected story of underdog striving and achievement for the more ambitious and personal story of an autistic child's struggle to understand and manage emotion.

Nathan, for instance, is genuinely baffled by his mother's exasperation, her need for affection, for emotional connection. As his mother, Hawkins is handed a confining role, but she's a clever actress, and absolutely crushes the scene in which she finally finds the words to explain to Nathan, given her limited grasp of mathematical terminology, the equation of family and the way to "value" a human being.

The scene is dangerously fraught with potentially stilted dialogue, but Hawkins remains in total command throughout this big moment. Her partner in the scene, Butterfield, manages to be expressive while honoring his character's limited emotional range.

If Butterfield looks familiar, by the way, it's because he starred in the would-be kiddie blockbuster Ender's Game a few years ago, when he was much shorter. For whatever reason, child stars in the U.K. sprout to amazing heights. No would believe watching Nicholas Hoult in About a Boy that he'd grow into a strapping, handsome pitchman for Jaguar. Butterfield is following his lead.

Also lengthened here is the abbreviation for mathematics, which the British insist on pronouncing as "maths." If you're going to shorten a word, why not shorten it to something easier to say, like plain old Yankee "math"? "Maths" gets stuck on your tongue.

I say that, in the next olympiad, the U.S. and U.K. square off for naming rights.

thompsg@phillynews.com

215-854-5992

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Directed by Morgan Matthews. With Asa Butterfield, Sally Hawkins,

Rafe Spall, Jo Yang, Eddie Marsden. Distributed by Samuel Goldwyn Films.

Running time: 1 hour, 41 mins.

Parent's guide: No MPAA rating.

Playing at: Ritz Bourse.EndText