Asa Butterfield and Sally Hawkins star in UK drama, X + Y

REVIEW: The numbers all add up for X + Y, a sensitive and sophisticated drama about a troubled teenage maths prodigy.

X + Y (M)

Director: Morgan Matthews (feature debut)

Starring: Asa Butterfield, Sally Hawkins, Rafe Spall, Jo Yang, Eddie Marsan.

Rating: ***1/2

Ignoring negatives to find positive equation

The numbers all add up for X + Y, a sensitively and sensibly structured drama about a troubled teenage maths prodigy.

Despite its M rating, the film could easily be regarded as a British equivalent to our own Paper Planes.

Though slightly more sophisticated on the storytelling front, there is a fundamental sweetness and purity of intent to X + Y that is just as irresistible as Paper Planes.

Viewers of early high-school age in particular will connect easily and strongly with the journey of Nathan (Asa Butterfield), an awkward teen learning to both live with and look past a difficult upbringing.

Diagnosed with a mild form of autism from an early age — a condition somewhat reinforced by the loss of his father in a tragic accident — Nathan’s sole interest is mathematics.

Nothing else matters to Nathan, not even the ever-present support of his devoted mother Julie (Sally Hawkins). She was a poor student when she was Nathan’s age, and her son never lets her forget it.

After the first act of X + Y does a great job of establishing the harsh social and emotional limits imposed by Nathan’s condition, the film moves on to exploring how he will eventually transcend them.

Rafe Spall and Asa Butterfield in a scene from film X+Y

A period spent under the tutelage of Martin (Rafe Spall), a local teacher with problems of his own, becomes a welcome catalyst for change. Not only for Nathan, but everyone around him.

Nathan is invited to join an elite squad of British students to train for the International Maths Olympiad, an annual competition that gathers the best and brightest young minds from across the globe.

Though X + Y is following a very familiar trajectory in terms of how its hero will soar above the hurdles placed in front of him, it goes about its business with a conviction and credibility that cannot help but win over the most cynical of onlookers.

Butterfield leads from the front in emphatic style, continually finding new and unexpected ways to draw us closer to the often (and always understandably) distant Nathan.

Originally published as Asa Butterfield and Sally Hawkins star in UK drama, X + Y