People are voting emotionally.

best movie i've ever seen.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

Liu Xing is recruited from China to work as a graduate student under his hero Jacob Reiser (Aidan Quinn). Reiser is famous for his model of physics. Liu Xing joins a group of Chinese students who work for Reiser with little pay. They scrounge for food but Liu Xing paints a pretty picture for his hard-working parents back home. Joanna Silver (Meryl Streep) is a rich benefactor for the Chinese students. Liu Xing falls for coffee girl Jackie (Taylor Schilling) but she doesn't feel the same. He starts to push for a different model than Reiser but he's rejected. As each failure piles up, he breaks down in a volatile way.I have two main problems with this movie. Firstly, this seems to suggest that China is a free source of third world mental labor. I don't think it works quite as well in the present day but it works better back in 1991. Second, the ending is such a different tone that it damages the movie. The movie desperately needs foreshadowing. Liu Xing needs to have a more complex personality. It's like the movie falls a cliff and there is no warning.

Not fully Realized Study of Academia and the Struggle for New Ideas entering the Prison Paradigm of Formalized Mainstream Thought. It's a Good Effort and it has a lot to offer but unfortunately, does Not Deliver Completely.The Enslavement of the Mind by Ego-Maniacal Professors in the Higher Educational System is Touched Upon here but Deserves far Deeper Exploration than what goes on here. Instead, We have two Subjects, the Cross Cultural Effort and the Impenetrable Intelligentsia. Each deserve a wider Venue. There just isn't enough Space for both to Co-Exist in this Little Film and its a Short Changed Display that Results are Unfulfilled.The Ending Suffers greatly, Betraying its Cerebral Dark Subject Matter.

Some foreign students coming to American universities don't adapt easily to the environment they find, however nice the professors and mentors are to them. No matter how brilliant they are, there seems to be a sort of wall between their higher goals and the reality of the culture they find in a land that, for all practical purposes might be the moon, as far as they are concerned.This is a story based on an actual incident at the University of Iowa in 1991. Not remembering the actual incident, watching the film we are taken to a sort of situation that probably parallels the original tale in which a Chinese student's relationship with a professor is examined. The casualness of Jacob Reiser's approach to science clashes with his protégé Liu Xing in ways that will end in tragic results. Liu Xing dreams about a possibility of winning a Nobel prize as he begins to question his mentor in aspects concerning the cosmology matters.The film, directed by Chen Shi-Zeng, who is well known for his direction of operas that have played in America, is a beautiful piece of film making. The trouble though is one's own detachment from the lofty subject at the center of the piece. The picture will be appreciated much more by people in this particular field. The main asset is the magnificent music in the background by the Beijing Angelic Choir in the interpretation of classics such as "Ode to Joy", "Beautiful Dreamer" and Schubert's "Serenade" that blend well within the content of the piece.As far as the performances, Ye Lui, a Chinese actor makes a case for his Liu Xing. Meryl Streep, who appears as Joanna Silver, a sort of unofficial counselor to the Chinese student population, has no other explanation of being in the film because of her name, more than what she is asked to do. Aidan Quinn is good as Professor Reiser.

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.