Beautiful mind. . . mad scientist?

Rating: Null/10 (18 April 2002)

This movie presents an interesting variation on the mad scientist theme. It is the true story of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash. Having been an academic for most of my life, I could readily identify
with Mr. Nash's ongoing struggle for respect and even sanity inside the ivory tower. In such a tightly controlled, artificially constructed
world, Professor Nash seems to fit most of the stereotypes regarding
academics. A preoccupation--to the point of obsession--with his work,
for one. A lack of social and communication skills that most other
people in the world take for granted is another of these stereotypes.
The movie gets you so inside the mind of John Nash that at one point about midway through the picture you, the viewer, cannot tell what is
real and what is delusional, even after the credible suggestion of
mental illness has been made.
I don't want to diminish or misrepresent the traumatic nature of Prof. Nash's experiences, but I was struck, from a personal point of view, by the nature of his phantoms. Nearly everybody has been haunted by a
personal phantom or two. Maybe someone wanted to become a teacher and
never did. Maybe such a person came close to marrying someone and never did. We all are haunted by phantoms similar to those Professor Nash
experienced whenever we believe in something with our whole heart and
mind and are disappointed. We continue to judge ourselves and those
close to us by the standards of our disappointed hopes. Mr. Nash lived in an environment which exaggerated these tendencies to the point
requiring medical treatment. But pondering the true nature of his
phantoms--perhaps "demons" would be a better word--it seems to me that
his experiences are not completely alien to those of people who consider themselves free of delusions and quite sane. The movie itself appears
to echo this point.
In the end, it is Nash's wife, played by Jennifer Connelly, who is the
bridge between the world of delusion which Nash's mind experiences and the real world which exists independent of that experience. She is the mediator of his sanity and ours (as an audience).