 Tagline: It is only in the mysterious equation of love that any logical reasons can be found. A Beautiful Mind is the thrilling and inspiring story of a brilliant and charismatic man ensnared by a mysterious conspiracy which takes his life and mind to places he never imagined. Winner of 4 Academy Awards® including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is directed by Academy Award® winner Ron Howard and produced by his long-time partner, Academy Award® winner Brian Grazer. A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe in an astonishing performance as brilliant mathematician John Nash, on the brink of international acclaim when he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. Now, only his devoted wife (Academy Award® winner Jennifer Connelly) can help him in this powerful story of courage, passion and triumph. Storyline: A biopic of the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash Jr., a math prodigy able to solve problems that baffled the greatest of minds. And how he overcame years of suffering through schizophrenia to win the Nobel Prize. Written by Anonymous Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on February 3, 2011 -- Genius is notoriously difficult to convey on screen. Mad genius is even more challenging, particularly when the mad genius in question isn't a Bond villain, an evil scientist or a Machiavellian monster. A Beautiful Mind takes that final leap, delving into the genius, madness and humanity of mentally unstable, Noble Prize-winning mathematician John Nash. Sadly though, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman apparently weren't interested in telling Nash's story. Rather than paint an authentic portrait of his life and illness, Howard and Goldsman indulge in cinematic flourishes and fictitious absurdities, undermining their presumably noble intentions at every turn. The real John Nash never had visual hallucinations, never worked for the Pentagon, didn't begin battling mental instability until 1959, divorced Alicia Larde in the early '60s (ahem... Alicia Lopez-Harrison de Lardé, a Salvadorian immigrant and physics student), didn't hear voices until 1964, earned recognition for numerous groundbreaking strides in mathematics and economics years before winning the Noble Prize, didn't give a speech at the Stockholm ceremony and never resumed taking medication. And those are just the major differences between Nash's tumultuous life and the filmmakers' largely fabricated biopic. But does A Beautiful Mind stand on its own merits? Is it a worthwhile film in spite of its jarring departures from fact? Most of all, is it better than Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge, the four films it deprived of a Best Picture Academy Award? Shortcomings aside (at least for the moment), A Beautiful Mind excels in several areas. Howard's award-winning cast, led by an inwardly magnetic Russell Crowe and a convincingly distraught Jennifer Connelly (as Nash and Ladre), shed startling light on the very real stresses and strains that accompany severe mental illness, much more so than Goldsman's screenplay. Crowe's Oscar-worthy performance is especially powerful, and the accomplished actor all-too-effectively descends into the depths of Nash's delusions. The film's supporting cast is outstanding as well. Ed Harris makes the most of limited screentime as a shady government spook, Paul Bettany swipes entire scenes from Crowe as Nash's seize-the-day grad-school roommate and Josh Lucas, Adam Goldberg, Christopher Plummer and Anthony Rapp are compelling (despite being underused and given little to work with). It's also a beautiful film. Cinematographer Roger Deakins (The Shawshank Redemption, Fargo, Kundun, O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Man Who Wasn't There, No Country for Old Men, The Assassination of Jesse James, The Reader and True Grit, among many, many, many others) lends his famed eye and lenses to Howard's production, employing evocative light, shadow and color to breathtaking ends. Next to Crowe, Deakins is the film's greatest asset. Composer James Horner (Legends of the Fall, Braveheart, The New World and Avatar, again among many others) puts his ear and baton to great use as well, weaving themes as intricate and involving as Nash's mathematical equations. Like Deakins, Horner enriches the tone and tenor of the tragedies that unfold, reminding viewers of Nash's humanity even when he's at his most inaccessible. To their credit, Howard and Goldsman navigate perilous waters with certainty and confidence... for the better part of an hour. Once the extent of Nash's schizophrenia is revealed, everything changes. Everything. It's a brilliant bit of masterclass sleight-of-hand, I'll admit. One of the sharpest turns a film has taken in recent memory, no doubt. But Howard and Goldsman lose their grip on the film as suddenly as Nash loses his grip on reality. Sentiment quickly overtakes the narrative, the story occasionally shudders and stalls, crucial years pass without exploration, leaps in logic raise nagging questions, a child is born before inexplicably disappearing, and the careful balance Howard previously struck between Nash's genius, madness and humanity is slowly and casually discarded. It's almost like watching two entirely different films, neither of which is as complete or cohesive as it could be. To be clear: A Beautiful Mind isn't a mediocre movie by any means, but the result is less than the sum of its parts. So does A Beautiful Mind stand on its own merits? To a point, although not enough to make the whole of the picture as rewarding as its finest sequences. Is it a worthwhile film in spite of its jarring departures from fact? In some regards, I suppose. But stripping an already fascinating true story of nearly everything that makes it a true story begs the question: why would anyone tackle a biopic if they were determined to traipse so far off the beaten path? Why not simply tell another tale entirely, a fictional film in the vein of Good Will Hunting? Finally, is it better than the four films it deprived of a Best Picture Academy Award? Not in my humble opinion. While its performances, cinematography, score and meticulously constructed first hour deserve considerable praise, A Beautiful Mind isn't strong enough to warrant a Best Picture nomination, much less a coveted Best Picture statue. (Not that 2001 was teeming with an abundance of more deserving films.) Trivia:
Cast Notes: Russell Crowe (John Nash), Ed Harris (Parcher), Jennifer Connelly (Alicia Nash), Christopher Plummer (Dr. Rosen), Paul Bettany (Charles), Adam Goldberg (Sol), Josh Lucas (Hansen), Anthony Rapp (Bender), Jason Gray-Stanford (Ainsley), Judd Hirsch (Helinger), Austin Pendleton (Thomas King), Vivien Cardone (Marcee), Jill Marie Simon (Bar Co-Ed), Victor Steinbach (Professor Horner), Tanya Clarke (Becky). IMDb Rating (06/16/14): 8.2/10 from 406,675 users Top 250: #162 IMDb Rating (04/13/13): 8.1/10 from 300,002 users Top 250: #193 IMDb Rating (06/20/02): 8.0/10 from 14,292 users Top 250: #159
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