Astonishing story, well acted

Rating: 8/10 (22 April 2002)

No-one would dare write a novel as far-fetched as John Nash jnr's life. A prodigy, a mathematical genius, a paranoid schizophrenic, a Nobel laureate. With raw material like this, "A Beautiful Mind" was always a short-priced favourite to be a good film. Well, it is, but I don't think the Academy was right to call it the best film of 2001.
Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly deliver exceptional performances. I'm again frankly mystified why the Academy firstly nominated Connelly as a supporting actress when she gets enough screen time to be rightly regarded as a co-star. And as for Crowe not winning Best Actor, well... People who view this film superficially could write Crowe's performance off, dismissing it as thespian sleight-of-hand, a bit of hunching, stillness, some drool and hey, presto, paranoid schizophrenia. They would be wrong. There is so much depth to Crowe's portrayal. He plays Nash in the early years superbly as a self-acknowledged genius, arrogant but just a bit detached from normality, the accent just right. Then the years of Nash's illness, the terrifying delusions, the pain in his eyes during his insightful moments. This is incredible stuff, and Connelly is not overshadowed, she plays the role of Alicia masterfully.
It is interesting how Nash's delusional episodes are portrayed as real in this film, which is reasonable, given that they were real enough to Nash at the time. To tidy the film up, a couple of elements of Nash's life are neatly excised - the mistress, the early divorce from Alicia and their subsequent remarriage. Nash's 30 long years imprisoned in his illness are skimmed over in the final reel, which to my mind unbalanced the film a bit. It seems rushed in the last few minutes, as if Ron Howard has noticed that the film is already quite long and he's cramming the last bits in.
Finally, could it be that Ron Howard has constructed this film to draw parallels between Nash's life and that of post-war USA? Initial brilliance, unlimited potential and boundless optimism. Then a catastrophic fall into paranoid fantasy, stagnation, impotence and paralysis (for the USA, the Cold War years, culminating in Vietnam). Then a rebirth and recovery, slipping into comfortable autumn years with an acceptance of self, but at the same time an acknowledgment of the troubled past. As Harrison Ford said in "Frantic", "I am an American and I am crazy!"