How to waste the potential of a powerful storyline

Rating: 5/10 (8 March 2002)

The strongest trump card of the Beautiful Mind is its storyline. So much more could have been achieved by so much less, if only the story had been allowed to unfold without the need to mislead or dazzle the audience with special effects and directorial coups. An enjoyable, if schizophrenic film (excuse the pun).
This is the classic nevertheless compelling sociopathic-genius-turned-schizophrenic story. The magnitude of the Nobel prize and thus the deduced importance of the genius's work serves to augment and hold the audience. We all secretly admire and even envy the truly dedicated and gifted people, so our attention is guaranteed from the start.
This attention is wasted firstly by a script that at times focuses on non-story-serving scenes (several Princeton-based ones spring to mind, as well as the GO circular scene, what a pretense..) that dilutes the pace of the film and needlessly prolongs its length, presumably to adhere to the latest "more is better" Hollywood fad.
Mr Howard overstates. There is a distinct desire to dress up the story with effects, to tease or mislead the audience with a view to thrill, to fit in every trick of the trade. Understandably, since having an Academy Award story potential, one goes for the big "8 Oscar" prize.
The net result is, unfortunately, a dilution of the story, and the attention of the audience on things that don't really matter.
Mr Crowe is acceptable but not consistent. He is struggling, perhaps by directorial misinformation, to balance the character between idiocy and sociopathy, brilliance and simplicity. Even considering the evolution of the character, the inconsistency is apparent, especially when frantic head or hand gestures are used to denote stress and reality shocks. Definitely not an Oscar performance.
Mr Harris is poignant and ghostly and in general positive, although a bit too cowboyish at times.
Ms Connelly brings grace and beauty, but her character is not well defined to the point that it almost becomes a support role.
Good if sparse humour, tasteful cinematography and a soundtrack that serves but does not dominate are some of the positive points of the film.
A Beautiful Mind is a thriller, a biography, a venture into the unknown depths of the mind, a sociological study, everything and nothing at all. Perhaps that's what schizophrenia is all about...