Ralph Spall? Sally Hawkins? Eddie Marsan? Yup, we're in British social indie territory here with X+Y. Although not quite as we're used to. Sure, each actor's in full character mode and Hawkins and Spall bond over their different-yet-similar troubled past, but the film is really about Asa Butterfield and his love of maths. Not just showing the struggles children with aspergers go through, X+Y is a wonderful look at the hidden beauty of mathematics. If you've always rolled your eyes when someone's gushed about how lyrical equations can be, this is a great way to get a sense of what they're on about. The drama is nicely worked into all this, with Nathan forced to face that the complete formulas of the world of numbers can't be applied to real, human interaction. X+Y seems to be the victim of poor marketing. After appearing at many film festivals around the world late last year, it popped up on limited screens in different territories at random, even getting released in the US as A Brilliant Young Mind, a title similar, but not identical to the TV documentary that inspired it, Beautiful Young Minds. Had there been more cohesion in the release, and a smarter ad campaign that gave a greater sense of the well-observed mental health elements, this could have been fully appreciated.
