Definitely an intelligent moving film, even if it does betray its Hollywood origin

Rating: 7/10 (11 November 2005)

I watched this DVD at my son's recommendation. I had no idea what to expect. As a university professor I was interested in the picture of academia in the 50's. The film then started to lose it's way. It threatened to deteriorate into a Hollywood spy thriller. The brilliant mathematician (John Nash) hired by dumb spooks. Just as my interest waned it turned out that the secret undercover work was actually a paranoid schizophrenic fantasy. Having being confronted by this debilitating mental dysfunction at close hand (my sister) for most of my life, the film became suddenly captivating. Here and there stereotype Hollywoood sentimentality prevents the film from becoming a really great film, but it remained stimulating and moving right through to the end. The next day I checked out the movie content with a genuine biography and interview with John Nash himself. The movie is not entirely accurate - Nash never actually had visual delusions, but he did experience voices. In the movie Nash is stabilizes and continues to take medication. In reality he has not taken medication for the last thirty years.