See it before you read too many reviews!

Rating: 9/10 (20 December 2001)

The best thing you can do for yourself before you see this movie is to stay away from all reviews! There is an element of surprise that is essential to this flick that the reviews are all giving away. If you haven't seen it yet, then don't read the rest of this. * * * * * *
This is a biopic of celebrated math scholar and economics Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash, who suffered(here's the spoiler) from paranoid schrizophrenia. The film opens with his foray into school at Princeton, where is is already a social outcast, a quirky genius, and an excessive worrier of finding `that one orginial idea.' It is here he meets his best friend, roomate Charles (Paul Bettany), and his wife, Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). He gets his idea, impresses the professors, lands a plum assignment at MIT, and marries Alicia. Life seems to be rolling along.
Suddenly John finds himself in the middle of a plot to keep the Russians from obliterating America because he's an expert code-breaker. His life becomes a turmoil of secrecy and paranoia as he feverishly works to find conspiracies in magazines. When he fears danger, his paranoia gets out of hand, until Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer) commits him to an institute and declares him crazy.
Here's where the bulk of the film begins, and why it was important not to know whether he was crazy or not before seeing this. As you're watching this film, you're wondering, too, what is real and what is not. Is he really part of government work and is America in danger? Or are they delusions in his own mind? Not knowing anything about the film before I went it, it was exciting to watch; it is essential that the audience doesn't know what's real or what's made up because then you understand to some extent what John is going through. Had I read the synopses beforehand, I would have been robbed of this brillant cinematic trick.
I don't know if the producers meant for that to happen, or didn't care if we were let in on the joke, but I do give them credit for not giving it away in the trailers. Jennifer Connelly gives an excellent performance as the backbone of the world crumbling around her; Ed Harris and Paul Brittany steal the show, and it doesn't hurt that Adam Goldberg is in it, either. Russell Crowe may see yet another Oscar nomination his way(though a particular gripe of mine is that how many math geniuses have the good looks or the physique of Russell Crowe? Hubba hubba). He does portray John with amazing emotion and wit throughout. I did find a few flaws with some of the scenes but it's Hollywood afterall. I thought it did a remarkable turn from your basic social-outcast-genius story to one of intrigue, excitement, and human spirit.