Two stories for the price of one

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2014)

Having seen A Beautiful Mind a few times now, it never ceases to amaze me how well this movie is put together. From the writing of the screenplay to the cast and crew, this film is top caliber and worthy of all of the Oscar nominations and accolades bestowed upon it. This movie is at its best when viewed the first time, but each time after I seem to notice something that I had not before. That is the genius of this film.
Director Ron Howard leads a talented team of actors and actresses to deliver one of my all-time favorite movies. John Nash (actor Russell Crowe) is a mathematician who is battling the debilitating mental illness, Schizophrenia. Alicia Larde (actress Jennifer Connelly) is a student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T), where John Nash is a professor, who falls in love with and eventually becomes his wife.
There actually two good stories intertwined to make A Beautiful Mind the classic that it is sure to be. The first is the life and accomplishments of Nobel Prize, for Economics, winner John Nash; the second is insight into the disease schizophrenia, and the effect it has on John and those closest to him. Similar to Teddy Daniels, Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the movie Shutter Island, this disease takes over their lives. Eventually removing the separation between reality and fantasy.
My first insight into the quality of this film appeared when John Nash, a self-described loner, is attending Princeton for Graduate school; he is housed with a roommate named Charles, (actor Paul Bettany). Charles is boisterous and out-going, where Nash is the serious workaholic. Charles is also a delusion of John's mental illness. Throughout his time in the film, Charles is ingrained into the scenes, whether it is playing pool or standing outside the Helinger's office, Hellinger is played by Judd Hirsch. The nuance I did not notice until the second viewing is that Charles, and similarly with the other delusions, only interacted with John Nash. Even when Marcee, Charles' niece (actress Vivien Cardone), was running around the Princeton campus chasing birds, none of the pigeons took flight in fear of her. The timing and tempo of the movie, made these characters appear as they are the same as John and Alicia themselves. It made later characters, Dr Rosen, more difficult to discern as real or not.
Another quality of the film that I enjoyed was the use of invisible sound. There is a point in the film where Alicia is gathering clothes from a clothes line, she hears what appears to be cryptic radio chatter. These noises appear to be coming from the inside of a small garage at rear of the property. When she goes to investigate, she discovers just how far along her husband's illness has progressed. He was supposed to be taking medication to keep his illness under control. With this discovery, she knows he has stopped taking his medications and that theirs sons life is in danger.
One of the more memorable moments of the film is a conversation that John has with Charles atop the roof of their dormitory at Princeton. It happens the day they find out that they are roommates; John is explaining to Charles why he isn't good with people. John tells Charles, "The truth is, I don't much like people And they don't much like me". Later in the conversation, they delve into why John is so driven to work as hard as he does; John states, "find a truly original idea. It's the only way to distinguish myself. Only way to truly matter". To me, those are very powerful insights about John Nash. The fact that he is having this conversation with a person created from his illness is telling to the seriousness of his disorder. John graduates Princeton and gets a job, teaching at the Wheeler Lab, on the campus of M.I.T. During his time there, he is contracted to do cryptography work for the Department of Defense (DoD). After finishing one of his jobs decrypting Russian code, John meets Parcher (actor Ed Harris). Parcher seeks Johns help decrypting more Russian code to help foil a plot to detonate a mobile nuclear device on US soil. Parcher, like Charles, is a product of John's schizophrenia. Where Charles seemed to befriend John, Parcher seemed to use patriotism and fear to get Nash to do what he needed him to do.
Eventually, with the help of Alicia and Dr. Rosen (actor Christopher Plummer) John comes to realize that Chalres, Marcee and Parcher are not flesh and blood, but part of his illness. This is the turning point in the lives of John and Alicia. Up to this point, John has been in denial of the diagnosis from Dr. Rosen, even so far as to claim Dr. Rosen is a Russian doctor trying to silence him. John almost drowns his son in the bath tub, claiming that Charles was watching him; then he shows Alicia out of the way as he thinks Parcher is about to shoot her for treason. When faced with a return to the mental hospital for more treatment, John tells Alicia that he now knows that these people are not real, he explains to her, "I know they are not real, Marcee never ages".
Through all of the highs and lows that are John Nash's life, there is Russell Crowe giving a superb performance. All of the symptomatic subtleties, from the unusual walk to the way he talks and averts his eyes; Russell Crowe is most deserved of his Oscar nomination. His portrayal, of both, John Nash and of a man battling a mental illness would be worthy of a nomination for either performance.