Magical and Menacing

Rating: 10/10 (20 December 2003)

A Beautiful Mind (2001/Ron Howard) **** out of ****
"There is nothing scarier than finding out that the people you know have not died or gone away, but were never even there to begin with."-- Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer)
"A Beautiful Mind" tells the haunting story of world famous mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe), and his struggle to overcome his schizophrenia, and to regain his sanity. Joining him on this emotional and paranoid journey is his wife Alicia (Oscar Winner Jennifer Connelly), a concerned doctor (Christopher Plummer), and several invisible people including his college "roomate" (Paul Bettany), and a secret service agent (Ed Harris).
Ron Howard does a remarkable job at bringing the true story of John Nash to the screen. He shows the film through the eyes of a troubled genius, which is at times magical, and at other times menacing. All the performances are excellent, and very powerful. This is undoubtedly Crowe's best performance. My favorite scene is after Alicia found out that John wasn't taking his medication, and as she starts to drive away, and he stops her and says, "She never gets old. How can she be real if she never gets old?". In my opinion, this is the most powerful scene in the movie. The music also helps make the story telling process exceptional.
All in all, this is truely a masterpiece. I remember when it came out, a lot of people on IMDb didn't like it because it beat LOTR at best picture. But in my opinion, LOTR will never be able to match this, EVER.
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