A harsh and gloomy story told in a most beautiful way, Howard, Crowe, and Connelly help craft a fine film

Rating: 9/10 (14 May 2006)

Is a Beautiful Mind groundbreaking? No. Is A Beautiful Mind a cinematic achievement? No. Is A Beautiful Mind a drama that will change your outlook on life? Yes. Directed by Ron Howard and lead by an incredibly talented staff in writing, directing, acting, and musical score, A Beautiful Mind is leagues above the average drama and remains one of the few movies in recent years that actually did indeed deserve that Best Picture Oscar it had earned years ago. This film will make you laugh, will make you suspect, will make you cry, and will make you reflect on your life one way or another.
A Beautiful Mind follows the life of mathematician John Nash. He is an extremely intelligent man but with his genius comes problems, issues, and situations that affect not only him but also the lives of the people he cares about the most. Throughout the film, there are many surprises and unexpected turns in plot that just reveals how his methods of thinking and attempting to find solutions ultimately eats away at his life. Russell Crowe plays Nash and pretty much nails it, one of the finest performances I've ever seen. You can even see him little by little break down emotionally as well as physically as he lived on with his problems. Jennifer Connelly is just as talented as she is beautiful, as she plays the loving yet frustrated wife of John Nash. Crowe and Connelly have excellent chemistry together, and their love for each other pretty much bleeds out of the film and into your heart, as you will have a lump in your throat during their best moments shared together. Another notable good job comes from Ed Harris, who plays a cold man hiring John Nash on a top-secret mission to help find out what the Russians are doing. The acting is basically what runs this film, but much credit should be given to the writing.
Weaving a true-life story that needs to be told into a movie that can capture the interest of an audience is no easy task; especially involving the evil and cynical feature we all call mathematics. Fortunately for us, they kept the complicated, convoluted jargon that only true math experts can recognize to a minimum, even though there are times in which you are just better off zoning out as you see Nash engage into intricate arithmetic with other Princeton students. The story is paced well, as no section of his life is stretched way too long, nor does it ever become predictable. Ron Howard absolutely perfects his directing skills in this film, as he constantly leads the audience down one path, only to totally throw them off at the latest surprise. Kind of like Fight Club and Pulp Fiction, A Beautiful Mind may require more than one viewing in order to catch all the nifty details scattered about. Even the colors of the film are remarkably toned down as you dwell halfway into the movie.
It is more than a biography; it is a love story, and a story about a man attempting to defeat a seemingly impossible task of daunting past his problems. While his dilemmas are far from normal, deep down, we all can sympathize and understand what he is going through, we all can see ourselves in him as he goes through his worst moments. But unlike most life-changing, eye-watering stories, this one didn't look like there was much hope, and as the viewer, you will almost deteriorate emotionally as badly as John Nash. Nonetheless, don't get the impression that this movie should be avoided if you are currently depressed or emotionally unstable, because underneath all the drama and chaos lies hope and anticipation, lies a chance that everything will be betterthis is what life is, an ever-changing quest for happiness that contains moments of darkness that seems to find no end. A Beautiful Mind is exactly an interpretation of life, that long, sometimes awful yet rewarding road that hopefully finds its way out of the bowels of rough terrain.
Bottom Line: A Beautiful Mind should be viewed by everybody, as it gives a not-so-typical story about a man whose fears and issues threaten to get in the way of his first love, mathematics, and his main love, his wife. Acted out almost perfectly, and directed with few faults, this movie should change the way you view things or at least reflect a bit. While the dialogue does have its bits of slowdown, especially when the complicated math starts getting involved, this film is nothing short of spectacular. Highly, highly recommend. A Beautiful Mind: An extraordinarily beautiful film woven from a sometimes-ugly life story.
9/10