What's In A Mind?

Rating: 9/10 (8 June 2019)

Didn't think I'd watched A Beautiful Mind. At first, I thought that maybe it seemed familiar because of its similar feel to the later films The Theory Of Everything and The Imitation Game. Misunderstood, awkward geniuses in elite institutions, struggling to find their place in society whilst engaged in a battle with their own brilliant (or, indeed, beautiful) minds; it's no wonder that I was drawn to this film because I've already seen and loved it.
Sadly and also fortuitously, I don't have a mind like John Mash's so I was able to watch this film with new eyes despite having seen it and it really is remarkable. Whether or not it is as true to life as the other two films I mentioned (both of which, while brilliant, deviate heavily from reality), I don't know. What I do know is that I'm clearly drawn to and fascinated by those whose brains are wired differently from those of mere mortals. Nash, Hawking, Turing, Curie, Lovelace, Weeks, Da Vinci; these people see the world so utterly differently and beautifully that I'm compelled to want to see what they see, even though I never, ever could.
Ron Howard won 4 Oscars for this film and it's easy to see why. Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly are exemplary in their roles as the Nash's and the film itself doesn't waste a scene as it tortures us and John with what is real and what is not. This is part biopic, part thriller, part mystery; all wrapped up in the mind of one remarkable brain. It is a blessing that John lived at a time where his conditions, to use a basic term, were at least attempted to be understood, albeit primitively, rather than him being locked away in a padded cell for the rest of his days.
Such minds change the world if they're allowed to. The person in question might never be able to understand themselves or the world they live in but if and when the light shines through and they unlock whatever is lurking in the recesses of their capabilities, beauty and magic are released and the way we all view things is altered.
Hawking's body let him down, the medical profession let Nash down and everybody let Turing down (look it up; it is a source of eternal national shame what happened to him after the war). Great geniuses are so often misunderstood and let down by those around them but we can only be grateful that these people's minds were allowed to shine so brilliantly and with such intensity for however long they did.
A Beautiful Mind is a beautiful film about a beautiful man. We mere mortals are so lucky that such insight comes along once in a blue moon, even if they themselves must suffer so much. I just wonder if it has to be that way. All minds are beautiful but some are painted with a greater palette of colours.
9/10