A Beautiful Performance

Rating: 7/10 (3 February 2002)

Based on the real life of genius mathmatician John Nash, this film takes liberties with its events, but ultimately serves up a great movie about a man in madness. Russell Crowe is fantastic as Nash. This is a signature performance that will captivate moviegoers with a magnetic energy. Nash's slow but steady decent into paranoid pscyzophrenia is troubling, puzzling and heartbreaking. The character ages 50 years through the course of the film, weaving him in and out of delusions that are not made clear until the midpoint of the movie. The first half is remenicent of the clever trickery and manipulation that the 6th Sense had, and until you realize he has this delusional disorder, you dont understand that half of what is one the screen is not real. The 2nd half of the picture depicts Nash's struggle to overcome the illness on his own terms - using his "beautiful mind" to beat his degeneration. He is a complex character, at times insecure, and others extremely arrogant and blunt, obsessed with his mathematic breakthroughs and fantasy life as a Pentagon agent. Jennifer Connolley is good as his wife, who stands by John through decades of uncertainty and maddness. The ending feels a bit too sweet and nice to feel very real. It will leave you questioning how much liberty director Ron Howard exercised with the script. A good film nonetheless. Final Rating = 7.4/10