A Beautiful Mind: 8/10

Rating: 8/10 (1 January 2003)

At the 2001 Academy Awards, A Beautiful Mind got four Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Screenplay from Another Medium. It well deserved all of them.
Russell Crowe is John Forbes Nash. He's an acclaimed mathematician. He reluctantly teaches a class at Princeton, where he meets Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). It doesn't take a genius to know that they get married. However, what Alicia, and John, don't know is that John is a schizophrenic. His life soon turns to shambles as he tries to piece together what's real in his life and what's not.
It could only be Ron Howard who could make this believable. Of course, the story of John Nash is unbelievable, but it could be played with such unnatural pathos, making the story too silly to be likeable. Howard, however, could turn this into a compelling drama that you'll enjoy sitting through. The over-two-hour runtime seems to fly by. A Beautiful Mind has about everything a drama needs: palpable drama, romance, a few tense scenes, and even a little humor. Not much, but a little.
The slow camera movements added to the general creepiness. Such as the clichÃ©d use of little girls with big eyes to add tension, the creeping camera brought out the feel of the picture that is very tangible. If you just take an ordinary `drama', you can't connect to any of the characters. Howard, along with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman, made Nash a likeable character, even from his asocial and agoraphobic tendencies from the beginning of the film.
James Horner created great music for this film. It's actually a soundtrack that I'm thinking of purchasing; he got robbed at the Oscars.
Goldsman's script was so masterfully written. It seems like he could become an object to behold soon in the future. It seemed, however, like he wanted each line to be a memorable one that everyone in the future would remember. Although some of them may be, it was a turn off (but one of the few from the film). I think that Howard and Goldsman can become a worthy team soon on.
Crowe did a better job here than in other movies, such as Gladiator. His genuine fear was very well displayed, though I don't think he got cheated at the Oscars. Connelly (who looked a lot like Andie McDowell to me) was also quite good, but, personally, didn't deserve her Oscar. Ed Harris, I think, did the best performance in the film as an FBI man, William Parcher. I could really feel for these characters, they did an excellent job as a whole.
There's not much more to say, it was a great movie that everyone should see.
My rating: 8/10
Rated PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content and a scene of violence.