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Rating: 3/10 (25 January 2003)

I put off seeing this movie for quite some time because I didn't want to get caught up in the "Beautiful Mind" obsession. But now that I have seen it, I wish I had used the time to do things that have more meaning, like reorganizing your sock drawer. This is a manufactured film made expressly to win Oscars. I have never seen as self-centered performance as Russell Crowe's. Throughout the entire movie he might as well be saying "I'm going to win an Oscar for playing this freak. HA!" He has no respect for the amazing man that he is playing, you can see that in his incredibly cliched movements that look like he read a book about what crazy people do, marked exactly where he was going to do these movements, and then executed them without thinking if this is the right time or if it makes sense for the character to do them then. I was so relieved when he did not win the Oscar, but I didn't think Denzel Washington's performance in Training Day was all that spectacular, but it was more of a career award for him. Russell Crowe, however, has had a career about as impressive as a box of hair. Jennifer Connelly was just okay. I didn't see anything spectacular or Oscar-worthy in her performance, she just sort of screamed and looked worried and disheveled. The best picture Oscar could have gone to a much more deserving film like Moulin Rouge, instead of this heartless award trap. The only description I can really give this movie is...blah. 3/10