Russell Crowe's performance is nothing short of marvelous

Rating: 8/10 (26 May 2002)

I must admit, I went into A Beautiful Mind not expecting much. It had received lukewarm reviews and I, at the time, was not really in the mood for another feel good triumph of the human spirit movie. But I came out most pleasantly suprised. For the past little while, I've had a love-hate relationship with this movie. I liked it, and thought it a very mature film by Ron Howard, yet I feel it was a sycophantic attemtpt to draw attention at the academy awards, attention that I feel should have rightly gone to The Lord Of The Rings: The Fellowship Of The Ring. Now, to say off the bat, Russell Crowe's performance is nothing short of marvelous. I don't particularly care for him, but I can certainly respect his brilliant portrayal of the schizophrenic mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. While Howard glosses over the more displeasing character traits of Nash a la The Hurricane, traits which include alleged Anti-Semitism, it's not his movie. Crowe owns the screen, and, being in virtually every scene, he elevates what could have been a tale of a man's struggle with a severe mental illness he can't deal with, and the people that stuck with him, into something that, while not approaching art, is heart-wrenching, with a predictable, but nonetheless welcomed happy ending. I find it difficult to understand how this film earned Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay, yet failed to garner one for the man who made the effort worthwhile. Yet, Hollywood loves mental illness. From Forrest Gump, to Rain Man, to Charly, films about heart over mind seem to never get old with the judges at the Oscars. I feel that this is as good a film as could have been made about this character, almost entirely due to Crowe, without becoming distant to the viewer. Do we really want to know about Nash's Anti-Semitism? Not really, no. A Beautiful Mind will always appear to me a film that made a campaign at the academy awards, and robbed a far superior film of it's honor. But it's definitely worth seeing.