A Beautiful Mind

[Morpheus2000]

A Beautiful Mind is the true story of John Nash (Russell Crowe - Gladiator) in which he is a mathematical genius. The story begins when he starts off in Princeton College from his scholarship he achieved through his various projects. He finds it difficult to relate to other people as they don't like him too much because he sees world as a mathematical equation and must be dealt with in that manor.

He looks for his original idea in order to gain his doctorate and while he's lost in his own world his roommate Charles (Paul Bettany - Gangster No 1) helps him to keep on the right path. When he finally starts as a Professor in another college he's invited to dinner by one of his students Alicia (Jennifer Connelly - Rocketeer) whom he later marries. During his tenure he's approached by Parcher (Ed Harris - The Abyss and Apollo 13) to break Russian codes and as he tries to do both jobs at the same time he must find his place in the world.

All the characters are very interesting so the viewer doesn't have time to get bored. Performances are excellent from everyone, particularly from Crowe and Connelly. The story itself is very good, but difficult to tell how much is true and how much is fiction. Director Ron Howard (Backdraft) keeps the proceedings at a moderate pace without going into too much detail. Overall a very good film so it's definitely worth a look.

[Tyler Durden]

Have to agree with everything said by Morpheus2000. Saw this tonight and its a great film.

Very solid performances all round, particularly Ed Harris, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.

Not in any way an action or big blockbuster but a touching, well told story of a man and his inner demons.

The Real Tyler ;)

[Tyler1]

Me too,

I was fortunate enough to see this and Ali while I was in New York At Christmas and I loved it. It was a very real and scary potrayal of this disease. I thought Jennifer Connolly was brilliant as was Crowe. In my opinion it should sweep the top 3 Oscars.

Tyler

[kerbcrawler]

...but A Beautiful Mind is NOT "the true story of John Nash"!! Like so many other Hollywood biopics it has been considerably "sweetened" for the popular market.

[StuNew]

An excellent film with some top notch acting.

Could it be "the true story of John Nash" insofar that it didn't actually lie but rather omitted certain facts?

Was the number of his office really "101"?

[McD]

Well, nowhere near as bad as I was expecting, and definitely Howard’s best attempt at real moviemaking since Parenthood way back when - unfortunately it shares the same collapse into crappy sentiment in the last five minutes. But, as ethanfox put it, the cheese isn’t as baked-right-in as it might have been for the most part.

Crowe gives a convincing performance as John Nash (is there a reason he is musclebound, bigger even than he was in Gladiator?), although I remain sceptical about this sort of thing doing well at the Oscars. It’s predictable to see that the Bafta’s Best Acting awards went to two mental cases! Jennifer Connelly is equally as good in a much less showy role (and kudos, I suppose then, to Bafta).

Akiva Goldsman thankfully makes amends for some of the worst screenplays of modern times. With this one though he stands accused of taking major liberties with the truth (I haven’t read the source book) but surely it’s no different to other recent biopics like The People vs Larry Flynt. He and Howard have also decided to take the easy route and avoid the math, sticking to some minor analogy around ‘pulling’ tactics. Fair enough, but wouldn’t Nash have known by 1953 that the universe wasn’t infinite? I’m no cosmologist, but sloppy, if indeed it was an error.

The twist is interestingly handled when it comes (and initially caught me unawares), although I think a few of the supporting cast could have been better handled by other directors. What would Alan Parker have made of this material? There is never any real sense of menace around Nash’s schizophrenia, despite all the kicking and shouting.

Recent Broadway smash Proof is coming soon to the big screen (and to the West End with Gwyneth Paltrow in May) – it’ll be interesting to compare the films. The subject matter of equation-making leading to the looney bin is nearly identical. And let’s face it – if you were assigned to look for secret codes hidden in popular magazines you’d never be able to read Empire properly again.

Special mention also to the make-up job on Crowe, the best I’ve seen since Amadeus. Everything looks right from his neck to his fingers. Expect it to win an Oscar. I haven’t seen In The Bedroom yet, but A Beautiful Mind is also the most worthy of the Best Film nominees so far, albeit in a highly suspect list.

[Cirrus888]

I saw this tonight and I will say it is Ron Howard's best effort yet at movie making. I normally hate his movies because he is everything that is bad about Spielberg. This film is better than most films about eccentrics but it is never original, it just hits all the right spots without any lasting impressions.