"I can work it all out. All I need is time."

Rating: 8/10 (11 November 2017)

You'll recall the scene in the movie when John Nash (Russell Crowe) is given an initial tour of Wheeler Labs, and he questions the presence of Big Brother watching from an elevated catwalk above the main floor. A hint to the viewer that what Nash is experiencing occurs later in the picture when William Parcher (Ed Harris) meets Nash for the first time, and refers to himself as 'Big Brother'. If in fact Parcher was a real person, it's doubtful that anyone at Wheeler would have revealed Nash's observation to him. That's what struck me the first time I saw this film and then again when I watched it once more this morning.
Well, like a lot of movies based on a true story that I initially find compelling and worthy of the highest rating here on IMDb, I'm left frustratingly disappointed that the screenplay distorts the facts in order to give the most appealing impression possible to the viewer. The main one here was Nash's relationship with wife Alicia, portrayed by Jennifer Connelly. Their first marriage only survived for three years before his schizophrenia drove them apart, resentful over the fact that she had him involuntarily committed. Their romantic relationship then rekindled after he won the Nobel Prize, and well after his mental illness had subsided.
What I liked about Crowe's portrayal of Nash was the way he came to grips with his delusions and later treated them with a dose of good humor - "There's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun" is what he stated to his friend Sol (Adam Goldberg) when he came to visit. Later on, reinstated as a teaching professor at Princeton, he self assuredly asked a student to verify the presence of a 'new person' he hadn't seen before. Those subtle instances helped reestablish Nash as someone who recognized that he was mentally ill, and that he needed to control his health with the proper medication.
For anyone dealing with mental illness within their own family, I think this film can be an eye opener about the fear and hopelessness that the sick person experiences. I state that from a personal perspective having observed now adult children going through the pain and embarrassment of delusional fantasies that at times became downright scary. In that regard, the movie presents a reasonable perspective that illnesses like schizophrenia can be treated with the proper attention, a dedicated medical provider, and the correctly prescribed medication. I've seen it happen more than once.