Quite simply a brilliant movie

Rating: 8/10 (24 October 2007)

Don't read this if you have NOT seen the movie. You've been warned.
A brilliant, well-written (Akiva Goldsman) drama, a semi-fictionalised account of the life of renowned mathematician and schizophrenic, John Nash. Nash is played by Russell Crowe, in one of the few roles I've seen him in where he has NOT annoyed the heck out of me. He just seems too arrogant and full of himself.
Anyway, A Beautiful Mind begins with Nash's early years at Princeton University, and follows him to the time he was awarded the Nobel Prize. It charts his decline into schizophrenia very well, including a whopper of a twist that I did not see coming in a million years. Like John's friends and associates, I believed every word, no matter how far-fetched it all seemed after a while.
I applaud any film that deals with mental illness in a serious way and doesn't poke fun at it. Aside from the fact that every Hollywood movie (and this one is NO exception) seems to feel the need to show at least one person gently rocking back and forth whenever we are shown a mental institution. I find it so bizarre that the "gentle rocker" seems to show up all the time...what condition is it that they think this guy has? Too much LSD while head banging to a Slayer concert?
HERE COMIN'THE BIG SPOILS people: That aside, A Beautiful Mind is a very well made film. Guaranteed if you enjoy it you'll want to see it a second time to spot all the William Parcher moments (my two favourites are when he first appears to talk to John outside the University dorm, and he just "appears" at the top of the stairs, you never see him actually open the door and walk through, nor do you hear it close behind him, because of course, he's not really there. And my other favourite is passing the security gate, where the guard doesn't notice Archer at all. I kicked myself for not picking that up the first time around!) The Paul Bettany character of Charles, Nash's imaginary roommate, is so awesome and such a great character that I found myself wishing he WAS real, and I genuinely felt sorry for him when Nash finally tells him he's not going to acknowledge him any more. I was feeling sorry for a figment of someone's imagination! Bettany is a legend, a great actor in my opinion (he's also terrific in another Crowe film, Master and Commander, and is even very good in the crappy rom-com Wimbledon).
Jennifer Connelly plays Nash's wife, Alicia, who stuck by him all through his worst years, when his delusions were basically controlling his entire existence. Connelly never gets too teary-eyed or melodramatic, and has a strength in her eyes that compliments her picturesque beauty.
Crowe's shuffling John Nash is great, a far-cry from Hando in Romper Stomper, let me tell you! He plays the sort of messed-up yet-still-smugly-intellectual character that should be worthy of derision but ends up being the exact opposite.