Simply A Masterpiece

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

The main issue beyond the plot - dark matter, cosmology etc - are not interesting to me, but the scenes have smoothly combined and related human issues have been pleasantly highlighted (perhaps the ending comes too suddenly). When East meets West, then differences in thinking and linguistic difficulties are present and coping with them is not always easy for those involved and their circles. And like in many other areas, science is also full of intrigues and I am sure that many important inventions or explorations have been covered up or postponed. All the cast is good at least, but Liu Ye and Meryl Streep are both outperforming the others. Mrs Streep is definitely the greatest, the most versatile contemporary actress. Mr Ye was unknown to me, but I think he is worth remembering (hopefully Hollywood will not exploit him in B-range action movies).Recommendable to those fond of dramas based on real events, although I consider Hawking (2004) better.

After a few minutes of watching this movie you realize its tempo is not the tempo of an American film, and despite the fact that it is an American product, the mind behind it is oriental. Completely. In reality one is watching an oriental film shot in the States, with a mixed cast of American and Chinese (japanese also?) actors. Everybody is excellent in his or her role and the direction is flawless. I think I'm not the only one to have noticed immediately when envy started raising its ugly head, and from then on the outcome is quite predictable.Even so, it's a beautiful film from beginning to end, with a particular calmness in all the scenes. The episode with the cosmetic line is quite pathetic and both actors are just sublime in it. They say that we make all those plans for our future and destiny (or whatever you call it) comes and throws everything to the wind. The oriental way to show us that, as subtle as it is in this film, is a thousand times more effective and overwhelming than displaying the usual Hollywood fireworks.

I really wanted to like this film... Great actors, interesting science story, etc. I understand that it is based on an actual event, but I was really hoping for a better constructed ending, with some kind of important message to take away.Please let the film's message be about a brilliant foreign student who overcomes a language barrier and the academic / scientific roadblocks to getting the recognition that he deserves... Or at least be a story about how he doesn't overcome these hurdles, in an inspiring way, so as to give us hope for the future.But no! It ends in an insane classroom shooting and suicide just because the student may have been treated unfairly in getting the credit he may have deserved. (This happens to many people without them going on a shooting rampage)! So what's the message? It's certainly not about my hoped for story line. It's appears to about the need for psychological screening of potentially disturbed people, and maybe the looking for warning signs. No sane person does what they did just because they feel unappreciated or unrecognized. Maybe if the movie could have shown a stronger justification / understanding of the student's action... they could have pulled it off. However, the director + writer really failed to do this. At the end we're just left with a sick feeling of "what a waste"... with no clear message of what to do with the information we just got from the movie's story; and with any compassion for the student that we might have had earlier in the story, washed away.

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.