DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Hayleigh Joseph This is ultimately a movie about the very bad things that can happen when we don't address our unease, when we just try to brush it off, whether that's to fit in or to preserve our self-image.

Cheryl A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

buiger For a film based on a true story, it could have been much better, much deeper, much more involving. This movie is overly simplistic, too straightforward. Everything is black or white, good or bad. Reality is never like this. A pity really, the premise is actually fascinating. The screenplay should have stuck much more to the truth, to actual events, they should have tried to portrait the characters faithfully, without trying to 'simplify' things for the viewer, to make the film more 'stylistically viable'.Oh yes, and this is one of the few movies (if not the only one) where Merryl Streeps presence was totally unnoticeable, if not unnecessary.

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)

cinebard BONDPONT sounds like he was Reiser's friend in real life in that he just claims the real person deserved to be aced out of a PhD but just says it. makes no cases, cites no evidence. Self promotion is no crime. BONdPONT did not demonstrate how GUNG LU was second best to what was portrayed in the film as a party line dude who did what Rieser and his own wife said to do.while no one should have been shot, the film clearly showed that some one did severe and unjustifiable damages to a budding theoretician. Killing His chances of developoing histheories because hewas not teamplayer buying reiser's soon to be discarded models.BONDPONTpontificates, never convinces.

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.