Honest and touching.

Rating: 8/10 (9 January 2002)

I was a little skeptical when a friend recommended A Beautiful Mind to me. My experience with Ron Howard's films has been less than delightful, and I was still angry at the dim-witted, wasteful Grinch released last year (especially when I learned that Dr. Seuss had refused every offer to let his stories be turned into live-action films). Thankfully, my friend's reccomendation was warranted, and I found this movie to be perhaps the most honest look at mental illness to come out of Hollywood in years. I found this story especially touching because I recognized in Crowe's portrayal of Nash a strong resemblance to a very dear friend of mine, who posesses the same combination of psychotic tendencies and astronomical intelligence. Many film portrayals of mental illness show their characters essentially being cured of uncurable disorders. Beautiful Mind shows a much bleaker reality. Nash, like millions of others all over the world, can learn to adapt to some extent, but will live with his schizophrenia for the rest of his life. As heartbreaking as Nash's story is, it is important to remember that among paranoid schizophrenics, he is relatively lucky to have companionship, employment, housing, and an intelligence that allows him to understand and fight his illness. The vast majority of those with his disorder are homeless, friendless, and perpetually confused. But his fortune, for some reason, helps make him sympathetic to the audience, as do a series of plot presentation devices which force the audience into his shoes in a way that very few movies have managed to do. Sadly, for all the strengths of this film (including an astonishing performance by Crowe), they are too often overshadowed by Howard's weaknesses as a director. I was especially underwhelmed by his liberal use of Horner's mediocre soundtrack. Many scenes would have been much stronger relying on the weight of the dialogue and the power of silence. The music was used in a way that was distracting and often made beautiful moments feel somehow manufactured and artificial. Beautiful Mind is, however, a beautiful film, and if you have someone in your life with a mental illness, you will find it particularly essential. Even if you don't, this film is a powerful catalyst in helping us all understand