This is proof of just how good Ron Howard is as a director...

Rating: 10/10 (27 August 2013)

What criteria should we judge a biopic on? How true to life it is, or how well it works as a standalone movie? I ask because if "A Beautiful Mind" is judged by the first criterion, it fails pretty badly on many counts. We are provided with a watered down, glammed-up version of the life of John Nash, cutting out many of the 'gory details'. If we take the second criterion, it's a masterpiece, proof (as if we needed it) of how good Ron Howard is as a director, and how well Russell Crowe can act.
The movie tells the life story of economist John Nash, whom we first meet when he starts at Princeton. He is socially awkward, bullied in part by his fellow students, and spends all of his time trying to come up with some original work. The only person he seems to get on with is his roommate, played by Paul Bettany, and the two characters spend a lot of great scenes with each other. After Princeton, he works for the US government as a codebreaker and at MIT. He meets Alicia, who goes on to become his wife, but is becoming too infatuated with his 'government work', with Ed Harris' character constantly on his case.
I only summarise the plot in this much detail because there is a point, around the hour mark, where we discover that a large portion of it isn't real. John is really a paranoid schizophrenic, and a few of the characters are mere figments of his imagination. I went into the film knowing this in part, and guessed fairly early on that one of the characters wasn't real using 'Sixth Sense' logic (doesn't actually interact with anyone except the delusional character). The other main one completely astounded me. This is even more of a credit to Howard, since he makes the aftermath of the reveal even more interesting and shocking than the reveal itself. One of the great parts of having a fairly early twist is that the rest of the film is very unexpected, and keeps taking you to surprising places. I won't say much more, because going into this film without many spoilers makes it even better.
Watching the film, I wondered why Russell Crowe hasn't performed this well in any film recently. He is at the top of his game playing Nash, with fantastic awkwardness, an extremely believable accent, and character traits which seem very well studied. At first glance, he seems to be playing an intelligent Rain Man/Forrest Gump, but there's so much more depth to his performance. The film is a treat to watch, with an astounding cast all round and proof that one day Ron Howard will go down as one of the greatest directors of the 21st century.