A bit of a dissapointment

Rating: 5/10 (17 June 2002)

Unlike most of the people who have had negative things to say about this movie... I like Russell Crowe and Ron Howard.
I had heard all the hype about this movie which didn't intrigue me from the previews and eventually became intrigued nonetheless. As I watched it I realized that this is, at least, the fifth modern film to use apparitions or schizophrenia to create a surprise. "The Sixth Sense", "Fight Club", "The Others" and "Vanilla Sky". All have been made in recent years, all use the same devices, and all used them much better than "A Beautiful Mind". I'm getting tired of it as it nears creating it's own genre of "Suprise" filmmaking.
Ron Howard does an excellent job directing as usual and the acting was good, as expected... not wonderful or perfect. I suggest you see "Rain Man", "Sling Blade" or "Regarding Henry" if you fancy a brilliant actor playing the role of a handicap.
The thing I didn't enjoy was that this movie never really decided what kind of film it wanted to be. You begin to attach yourself to Nash and then suddenly his wife takes over as the object of the movie.. and she shouldn't be. It's like Nash wants it to be an "October Sky" about discovery and merit and then this wife wants it to be a bad romance novel about love. I adore a good love story, don't get me wrong, but this movie wasn't a love story, nor was it about overcoming one's odds.. it was a horrible incomplete attempt at homogenizing these things. Especially with the ending scene at the Nobel Prize ceremony where he turned his acceptance speech into an I LUV U, when I got that awful "Mr Holland's Opus" feeling in the pit of my stomach. Blech.
Worth seeing once. **