A Beautiful Lie

Rating: Null/10 (30 January 2002)

This is a beautiful movie but why fictionalize a character of nonfiction to bring it to the screen? Why ignore the lead character's male lovers, his mistress, illegitimate child, his divorce in 1963 (even though he continued to live with his ex-wife), his arrest for indecent exposure and picking up another man in a public bathroom? Why exaggerate all the 'spy stuff' to such a not-possibly-real degree? Ron Howard homogenized and Hollywood-ized this one beyond its own true source to the point where it is unrecognizable as anything other than something coming from simply Opie's own imagination. Why not make up a great romance story from scratch instead of whitewashing Nash's life? Profit is the only reason I see, to make it more palatable for the masses, and it should be branded as such - A Beautiful Lie.