TIFF 2024 Review: Addition

A traumatic childhood event causes a mathematician to become a compulsive counter which impacts how she goes about her daily life and interact with people.

After having a nervous breakdown Grace Lisa Vandenburg attempts to reassemble her life once again but a compulsion to count everything around her and for it to add up perfectly causes her to equate numbers with everything that she sees. Grace also has an imaginary roommate in the form of Nikola Tesla who along with being a genius had some mental issues of his own.  Things take a dramatic turn when an incident at a supermarket leads to a romantic encounter which will either be the means to find happiness or yet another mental collapse.

Dealing with mental issues is always difficult as the visual depiction has to be respectful yet cinematic.  Numbers appear everywhere and montages emphasize the manic devolution to routine and the anxiety that occurs when it gets disrupted.  A voiceover guides the audience through the mental landscape which has a somewhat self-depreciative tone that walks the line of being funny and serious at the same time.  I cannot help but think that Joe Dempsie is doing his best to knock Glen Powell off the top of the male hottie list; thankfully his romantic interest character is more supportive than overwrought.

As for the protagonist, Teresa Palmer portrays Grace as a lovable rogue who is desperately aware of the seriousness of her condition and is struggling to find a way to bring it under control.  The soundtrack allows for some pressure release for both the characters and audience members.   The story is a mix of A Beautiful Mind and X+Y (ironically retitled A Brilliant Young Mind in the U.S.) though there is a lighter touch when dealing with the appearance of Tesla which is not a bad thing.  The trouble is that the narrative feels routine rather than having something different to offer whether it be insight into the mental condition or how romance, comedy and drama are mixed together.

The 49th Toronto International Film Festival runs September 5-15, 2024, and for more information visit tiff.net.    

Trevor Hogg is a freelance video editor and writer who currently resides in Canada; he can be found at LinkedIn.