A little silly

Rating: 7/10 (8 March 2004)

*MAJOR, DEVASTATING SPOILERS AHEAD*
"A Beautiful Mind" is well-acted and reasonably entertaining, but pretty silly as well. The concept is interesting -- to show us the fascinating evolution of genius, then sort of pull the rug out from under us and show us what happens when a devastating mental illness is brought to bear on the workings of such genius.
My main problem with this movie is the way in which the rug was pulled. Normally, when you have such a plot twist (a la The Sixth Sense), you can re-watch the movie and say, "Oh yeah, it all makes sense now." But with this piece of cinema, there's no way you could go back to the pre-diagnosis parts of the film and say, Oh yeah, they thought he was crazy. There isn't a single shot of someone looking at him oddly when he is talking to this imaginary roommate or fictionalized military man. IN FACT, the movie even flashes "The Pentagon" -- and this early in the film, why would you even question it's NOT the Pentagon? So we are either supposed to believe THAT really happened and his mind created this new character based on that experience, or (more likely, since later they imply the government would have no use for him), he made up that whole incident. So I feel like the movie deliberately misled me, rather than allow me to lead myself down a wrong path. That's kind of shameful, especially because post-diagnosis they made such a point of showing how this stuff was really fake.
The silliest part of the way this movie treated the whole twist was when he was finally captured and taken to the hospital. The men from the asylum just HAPPEN to be dressed up in the same style as the people in his dreams, and think the best place to take him into custody is while he's giving a lecture at the most prestigious university in the country. Right. Then, when they finally nab him, as he's screaming for help and being injected, everyone just stands around watching it and accepting it as if to say, "Well, this looks really wrong, but I guess they know what they're doing."
I would also love to know who called these authorities. His wife had to be convinced of his malady, and apparently his associates, who had something of a clue of his weirdness, didn't worry enough to alert his wife, which I would think would be at least step one before you phone the men in suits.
If you aren't such a stickler for detail, though, it's easy to be entertained by this. Another fine performance from Russell Crowe and some stunning-in-spots scenes from Jennifer Connelly (haven't decided yet though whether she deserved that Oscar).
7/10