A great character study.

Rating: 9/10 (10 March 2006)

Ron Howard is certainly a prize. There is such a danger when one plays with the audience's sense of reality, that things will become so confusing as to destroy any consistent engagement. The story of John Nash is remarkable. First of all, we have this brilliant man, this genius. He carries on daily discourse and is a success in every endeavor. However, underlying everything is the hallucinatory world of his disease. How do you respond to the correct reality when there are so many. How do you go on when you know that some of the people you speak with aren't real; that some of the issues dominating your life are objects of paranoia and fear. Howard and Crowe pull this off in full view of the audience. When the movie is over, we understand. Then there is the fact that there are people who wake up every morning and face the type of day that this man does. If he were a raving lunatic it would be one thing. But he continues to make his way through life. Those around him are constantly off balance because they have to recognize that what he says may have not foundation. You look for the evidence, not the word. The direction takes us on a journey that hasn't been done before.