Almost Brilliant

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2003)

A Beautiful Mind is a movie about the life of John Nash, a brilliant Mathematician who lectured at M.I.T. in between developing mind-bending theories. There was an awful lot of scope for the film to take in, a genius who virtually corrupted his own mind in pursuit of theorems that most of us will never understand. The film itself doesn't quite deliver in the way it could or should, but that's wholly understandable.
It doesn't really touch on the elegance of mathematics at all but focuses more on Nash as a person as his increasingly schizophrenic condition. In this part, the film succeeds. Crowe gives an outstanding performance as Nash and Jennifer Connelly is excellent as his wife. It's a very emotive film and closer to the truth of the condition than most realise Â– for anyone who has suffered with mental ill health, one can appreciate some of the torment and turmoil that Nash goes through.
Overall, a decent film, competently directed by Ron Howard, but as with virtually all of his films, it could have been so much more. It's one of those movies that almost achieves greatness, but falls short. It is an emotional saga and will no doubt illicit the odd tear from the audience, but as a story about one of the greatest mathematicians of last century it doesn't quite add up (pun intended).