Moving but overrated...

Rating: 8/10 (11 July 2011)

"A Beautiful Mind" is a film about the mathematician John Nash. It is very cleverly written and directed, as about mid-way through the film you learn something very, very interesting about the film. I'd say more, but I don't want to ruin it--especially since the film makers did such a great job in presenting Nash's mental illness--something he's struggled with for many years.
I enjoyed "A Beautiful Mind". It was a lovely semi-fictional biography of the life of a brilliant mathematician. But, as I just said, it's SEMI-fictional--meaning a lot of the film just never occurred and the story of the man's life was often sanitized. The result is a very uplifting film...but one that is also a bit phony. And, as a retired history teacher, I hate this about the film. Additionally, I think the 2002 Oscars was a rather poor year, as although the film did win the Best Picture award, the competition wasn't particularly strong. As a result of all these factors, I think the film is overrated. Does that mean you should not watch it? Certainly not. Just understand that Hollywood often gets it wrong--and they did here. And, incidentally, another thing that is just plain wrong was Russell Crowe's accent. I don't know where he was supposed to be from, but it was no where near West Virginia.