PodBill
Just what I expected
Stellead
Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful
Numerootno
A story that's too fascinating to pass by...
David Traversa
After a few minutes of watching this movie you realize its tempo is not the tempo of an American film, and despite the fact that it is an American product, the mind behind it is oriental. Completely. In reality one is watching an oriental film shot in the States, with a mixed cast of American and Chinese (japanese also?) actors. Everybody is excellent in his or her role and the direction is flawless. I think I'm not the only one to have noticed immediately when envy started raising its ugly head, and from then on the outcome is quite predictable.Even so, it's a beautiful film from beginning to end, with a particular calmness in all the scenes. The episode with the cosmetic line is quite pathetic and both actors are just sublime in it. They say that we make all those plans for our future and destiny (or whatever you call it) comes and throws everything to the wind. The oriental way to show us that, as subtle as it is in this film, is a thousand times more effective and overwhelming than displaying the usual Hollywood fireworks.
Jay Harris
This is a confusing muddled drama of the sad plight of a brilliant Chinese student at an American university.This is the first effort of both the director; Shi=Zheng Che & writer Billy Shebar.If more experienced hands did this movie it very likely would have been handled better.The student(going for his PHD) is played by LUI YE-- from mainland China, His performance is first rate,He is a major actor in China & its easy to see why.Aiden Quinn is his mentor & professor & does his usual fine performance. Meryl Streep as a small ,but pivotal role and to me she seems not up to her usual par.The movie was filmed in Utah, & played in some festivals in 2007, released to very few theatres in 2008 & the box-office was pitiful.This is one of those films where they expect the audience to know what the story is supposed to be about. I was confused & think all will be as well...Ratings **1/2 (out of 4) 70 points (out of 100) IMDb 6 (out of 10)
rlange-3
Better at being thought provoking than entertaining in the strict sense of the word, the core of this movie is the conflict between two brilliant men in a high stakes, high power academic setting. One is the Chinese student of modest means, Liu Xing, who comes to the US to study under Reiser, the brilliant American professor, who expects Xing to support his theory as a graduate student. When he doesn't, things go very badly.The acting is superb across the board. The scenic shots are good, and while the characters tend to exude excessive sentimentality at times, especially Streep, the often vicious nature of competition in academia is captured superbly.The simplistic viewpoint is that Liu Xing publishes an article attacking Reiser's theory through naiveté. More likely, he was less naive than conceited, and when he lost the game his ego fractured and he raised the stakes.There is good timing throughout, although at times it drags a bit it never really gets boring. One of the better movies to see.BTW: There is no math and no theory in the movie. This is about the people, not the theories involved.
AjaxMinoan
I thought the movie was interesting and well made, but had a lot of negative messages in it. I felt it was very anti-Western and pro-Chinese. Little self criticism comes from Chinese films, so it's hard to be impressed with the film overall. They do disguise the sentiments of the movie well, because the main character is at first thrilled to be in America; and is very polite.For starters, all the students that seem to be studying Cosmology at the College seem to be Chinese. This might be partly justified since Asians tend to do well in math in US schools.What bothered me was how familiar the film was to other Chinese movies with anti-Western sentiment. All the white people in this movie seem to be jerks or stupid, except the woman played by Meryl Streep; who happens to be heavily into Chinese culture. Having personally been told by an Asian that Americans all put their parents into nursing homes, I didn't enjoy it being repeated in the movie.In the end, the main character of the film shoots the Chinese guy who converted to Christianity; then three white people who held him back in his academic pursuits; then himself. By the movie's end, I considered it pretty lame.
