A Brilliant Young Mind (2014) on Netflix
Nathan Ellis, a teenage math prodigy, struggles to connect with people and finds comfort in numbers. His teacher Martin Humphreys trains him for the International Mathematical Olympiad.
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- Netflix4.0/5
- IMDb7.1/1031,449 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes87%
Trailer
Plot summary
At nine, Nathan Ellis loses his father in a car crash. His father was the one person who could reach him, and Nathan, who is autistic, will not let his mother Julie touch him, though he depends on her care. Numbers are where he feels at home. Julie moves him to a new school and into harder classes, where his teacher, Martin Humphreys, a mathematician with multiple sclerosis, spots his talent. Seven years on, Martin is training Nathan for a shot at the International Mathematical Olympiad, which follows a two-week camp in Taiwan. Nathan doubts he will make the British squad, but he does, and among fifteen other teenagers he is no longer the best in the room. There he meets Zhang Mei, a Chinese student paired with him.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about A Brilliant Young Mind (2014)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The character of Nathan was based on a real person, Daniel Lightwing, who won a silver medal at the 2006 International Mathematical Olympiad after being chosen to represent the United Kingdom.
- In life the mentor who spotted Daniel Lightwing's potential was not a man but a woman, Miggy Biller, the Head of Maths at York College, unlike the teacher the film puts in that role.
- Unlike the story the film tells, Lightwing never lost his father; his father was alive and went with him to the film's premiere.
- The real training camp took place in China, where Daniel Lightwing fell in love with a Chinese woman whom he went on to marry, although the two are no longer together.
