'The Man Who Knew Infinity' Trailer: We Are Merely Explorers Of Infinity

What's more exciting than mathematical theories? The Man Who Knew Infinity isn't so much about equations and theories, but the film does focus on one of 20th century's most notable mathematicians, Srinivasa Ramanujan. Dev Patel (The Newsroom) stars in the biopic as Ramanujan, alongside Jeremy Irons, Stephen Fry, and Toby Jones.

Watch The Man Who Knew Infinity trailer below.

Ramanujan was born in Madras, India. After the self-taught young man wrote a letter to a respected professor at Trinity College, Cambridge, G.H. Hardy (Irons), his smarts and ambition landed him a place at the school. During World War I, Hardy took Ramanujan under his wing.

The inspirational tale, based on this trailer, definitely wears its heart on its sleeve.

Here's the The Man Who Knew Infinity trailer (via Indiewire):

This is pretty much what we expect from a trailer for an inspirational underdog tale: hope, triumph, moments of persecution, and, of course, the supportive father figure. The Man Who Knew Infinity looks like a fairly conventional film, and some of the early reviews out of the Toronto International Film Festival claimed the biopic was too familiar.

You gotta hate seeing extraordinary figures depicted in ordinary bio movies, which we see happen almost every year. Why not take a more unconventional approach to stories about outsiders? The biopics that tend to standout the most these days are the ones we haven't seen 100 times already. Maybe The Man Who Knew Infinity won't be another by-the-numbers biopic, but the trailer doesn't help raise our expectations, despite the cast and true story.

But critics were mostly positive towards Matt Brown's drama. Brown hasn't directed a feature film since 2000's Ropewalk, but he wrote and directed this true story, which features a strong cast. Even if this is the type of biopic that simply goes through the motions, Irons, Jones, and Fry aren't bad actors to go through the motions with.

Here's the official synopsis:

Colonial India, 1913. Srinavasa Ramanujan (Dev Patel) is a 25-year-old shipping clerk and self-taught genius, who failed out of college due to his near-obsessive, solitary study of mathematics. Determined to pursue his passion despite rejection and derision from his peers, Ramanujan writes a letter to G. H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), an eminent British mathematics professor at Trinity College, Cambridge. Hardy recognises the originality and brilliance of Ramanujan's raw talent and despite the scepticism of his colleagues, undertakes bringing him to Cambridge so that his theories can be explored.

The Man Who Knew Infinity opens in theaters April 29th.