Uninspired & flat...

Rating: 6/10 (2 January 2002)

"A Beautiful Mind" is one of those "Oscar(tm)-aimed" films like Gladiator that pretend to transcend Hollywood, and in the process appear eminently "Hollywood" (and mostly forgettable after the Oscars (tm)).

Uninspired performances, unrealistic and oversimplified portrayal of schizophrenia and (unforgivably), a dull screenplay. I kept looking at my watch through this one, and wasn't for one moment drawn into the story. There are no characters we can really empathize with in this film, and so it becomes an exercise in tedium.
The film does a good job in creating the general paranoid atmosphere one would attribute to schizophrenia, but doesn't succeed in conveying the 'reality' of it. Nash's "delusions" are obviously hallucinations(look up the difference if you don't know already), and the character is not sharply drawn or particularly interesting. Jennifer Connelly's acting is rarely better than "by the book," and nobody really seems very passionate about whatever characters they're playing.
Sorry guys, try again. Yes, I do like movies in this vein, as long as they're well-done... this one hardly qualifies as "medium rare." 6/10.