S. Ramanujan was one of the greatest scientific minds to ever roam the Earth. Writer-director Matthew Brown’s film chronicles the time he spent in London studying with G.H. Hardy and formulating some of his greatest mathematical breakthroughs.

While there is no doubt Ramanujan’s contributions to society are massive, the movie about how he reached his conclusions is a bit of a dud.

Dev Patel and Jeremy Irons labor hard as Ramanujan and Hardy, delivering admirable performances. However, much of this movie is men sitting at tables with pencils trying to figure stuff out, and men writing a bunch of numbers on chalkboards. This doesn’t make for captivating cinema. The movie brushes upon other subjects, such as the racism Ramanujan faced, and his wife back in India. These subplots do little to move the story along, and the film just sort of drags. Patel and Irons are not at fault. Heck, Brown had a monumental task making this story compelling. He is only about fifty percent successful. The movie is, ultimately, a bit of a bore.