A Beautiful Mind

Rating: 6/10 (20 June 2006)

First time I saw the film I thought it was brilliant, seeing it a second time I can understand reasons the critics give it three stars, but it is still very enjoyable, from Oscar winning, and BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated director Ron Howard (Splash, The Da Vinci Code). Basically John Nash (BAFTA winning, and Oscar nominated Russell Crowe, he lost to Denzel Washington in Training Day) is a maths genius at Prinecton University who can solve complicated equations, codes and theories. He can't find good use for his skills, so he becomes a teacher, and he falls for one of his students, Alicia Nash (Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe winning Jennifer Connelly), who he also marries and has a child with. He is met by William Parcher (Ed Harris) who gets him working for the government breaking Soviet codes and getting involved in a big conspiracy plot. Alicia becomes concerned for John though and calls Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer) to have a talk with him, and that is when we the audience, and soon John himself, realises he has paranoid schizophrenia. So John knows that Parcher, his university roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany) and his niece are all unreal people who only he can see, and he really struggles to get on with them in his life, causing terrible distress for Alicia. As the years go by he has learnt to ignore them, he returns to Princeton, and his academic success wins him the Nobel Prize for economics. Also starring Adam Goldberg as Sol, Judd Hirsch as Helinger, Josh Lucas as Hansen, Anthony Rapp as Bender and Austin Pendleton as Thomas King. Crowe does very well as the lead character, Connelly of course steals the show with her award-winning performance, and the support of Harris and Bettany are good, it is a film that desires people to take it seriously, but still very worthwhile. It won the Oscars for Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material Previously Produced or Published and Best Picture, and it was nominated for Best Editing, Best Makeup, Best Music for James Horner, it was nominated the BAFTAs for the David Lean Award for Direction for Ron Howard, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film, and it won the Golden Globes for Best Screenplay and Best Motion Picture - Drama, and it was nominated for Best Original Score. Russell Crowe was number 26 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Paul Bettany was number 40 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, and the film was number 93 on 100 Years, 100 Cheers. Good!