`A Beautiful Mind' is the best exposition of the mind's abilityto gyrate to a different tune since `Memento.'

Rating: Null/10 (18 December 2001)

CONTAINS SPOILER ''I don't want to scare readers away,'' says Ron Howard, ''but the mind is almost a character in this movie.'' And he's right. The mind of Nobel laureate John Nash is the core of this biography. From his early days at Princeton, where he tasted intellectual defeat early, to his triumph in Stockholm, Nash, as played beautifully by Russell Crowe, goes through intense combat with his psychological demons, including an apparent slip into schizophrenia.
`A Beautiful Mind' is the best exposition of the mind's ability to gyrate to a different tune since `Memento.' While the protagonist of the latter can't remember from one minute to the next, Nash is dangerously aware of every fantasy his mind can offer, including images of a flamboyant roommate, government operatives who may or may not exist, and a little girl who never grows old.
The tyranny of his mind's fantasies is not solvable by any mathematical equation. Its solution may be in the speech at the award ceremony, where he praises his wife for getting him there.
Crowe's performance will remind you of his mannered and suffering whistleblower in `The Insider.' Both performances are superior to his Oscar winning `Gladiator' role.