Unnamed, gawky She (the strikingly clear-eyed Aida Ballman, debuting here) lives an isolated existence in a very peculiar house. Happy but lonely, she has typed out and sent 1,212 letters in 1,212 days with no reply until one day, she receives one from the like-minded He (Spain-based American Ken Appledorn). (…)
Her German-inflected voiceover apart, the effervescent Ballman is basically doing a heightened, complex version of a circus clown. But the viewer never forgets that this is a lively, radiant young woman too, entirely innocent of the world, fragile and damaged by her relationship with her mother, who rather than tell her fairy stories as a child recited times tables to her — hence the title, and the resulting psychological damage.
