The Cocky Dweeb

Rating: 5/10 (8 August 2014)

I really don't see how anyone can like this movie. What kind of person would that be? I am really trying to put this equation together. My only guess is a misanthropic, rude, conceited rich boy. I suppose this kind of person might find some vicarious validation or confirmation of his (or her) clinically anti-social behavior. Then again, many misanthropic, rude, conceited rich boys would find this movie as value-less as I did. The only poetry in the movie came when the lady at the bar gave him a righteous dope-slap. His colleagues should have done the same thing. This guy makes Rainman (Dustin Hoffmann), Starman (Jeff Bridges) and Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) seem relatively normal and affable.
What I would love is for a sequel: (John Nash Meets Mr. Bean). Bean would eat him alive with his equally dysfunctional yet eminently- approachable eccentricism. I can only imagine the tears Nash would weep and the teeth he would gnash as his rigid worldview and egotism is shattered by the bumbling-but-caring and well-meaning Bean.
I went along with the movie, continuing to watch, just to wait for the moment when this cretin is expelled from college. Alas, that moment never came. Sometimes, things just don't add up: Ask Nash.
This arrogant, ill-mannered nebulus would never have made it through high school with his attitude. I abode with his cockiness, though, until it was revealed that the big theory he was working on was (cough) economics. I really thought the screenwriter was screwing with us at that point: Economics? Is there anyone in their right mind who finds economic theory to be entertaining or otherwise compelling?
One major flaw in the script was when his roommate pushes Nash's desk and all his paperwork out the window: He should have shoved Nash out with it.
His working on the sterile and uninspiring subject of economics was the icing on the cake. The cherry on top came when he began work for our beloved (choke) Pentagon. more formulaic demonization of Russia.
If we find it difficult to find empathy or any relation to John Nash, the person, we find it impossible to find any connection to John Nash the D.O.D. employee. Not in today's political climate, knowing what we do about the Pentagon, C.I.A. etc.
John Nash was looking for a novel idea to distinguish and validate him. Try a little humility and some compassion, John.
P.S: Do NOT blame this horrid movie on Ron Howard. The short-comings of this film are the direct responsibility of screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.., and the seven other producers, besides Howard, that he had to satisfy. I'm not sure he could have made this film any better from a direction standpoint.