A wonderfully crafted and thought provoking film.

Rating: 10/10 (14 March 2002)

This is a film all about hope. It is a deceptively simple drama about the life of John Nash, a mathematical genius who develops Schizophrenia.
I must admit at this point that I have a medical background, and what impressed me most about this film was the way the story of the main character unfolds. As you watch the film you can see the main events happen through the eyes of John Nash himself, but it is not until later in the film that you realise what you are seeing is the gradual onset of his illness. Without spoiling the story, you can retrospectively see the unfolding hallucinations, delusions and paranoia developing.
Russell Crowe is outstanding in his portrail of John Nash; few perfomances I have seen in recent years cry "Oscar" as loudly as this one. Perhaps the secret is in the understatement used, there are a few histrionic scenes, but generally you see the human face of John Nash throughout the film.
There were a couple of very well created historical influences on the film, notably the setting of Cold War America, and the treatment and attitudes about Schizophrenia in the 1950s (now fortunately gone forever). If you do not know much about schizophrenia before you see this film, you will understand a lot more by the end.
A wonderful, thought provoking film all about hope. Watch this film to find the solution.