For his first narrative feature, documentarian Morgan Matthews (Shooting Bigfoot) learns the hard way that a safe blend of comedy and autism make for an unremarkable movie. Asa Butterfield (Hugo) puts his transient lack of motor reactions to the test as a gifted teenager whose life changes when an unconventional teacher with MS helps score a ticket to Taipei for the lad to compete in an International Mathematics Olympiad. There’s a relatively new cliché in town that I am calling for a moratorium on: abrupt cutaways to car collisions filmed from the driver’s POV as s/he stares through the passenger’s window toward oncoming doom. That’s how it opens, and things only get sappier, particularly when young love pretty much crystal balls the payoff. Great to look at, and not a bad performance in the piece, but a comedy/drama that’s neither serves little purpose. With Rafe Spall, Sally Hawkins, and Eddie Marsen. (2014) — Scott Marks
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