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I was not sure what to expect from the movie, A Beautiful Mind starring Oscar winning actor Russell Crowe of Gladiator as the Nobel Prize winner Dr. John Nash. After viewing the film, I am still a little baffled. Not baffled at his condition or how a paranoid schizophrenic can ultimately win such a prestigious prize, but to the method Crowe used to portray a schizophrenic man. At the beginning of the film I know the intent was to demonstrate a complete lack of social graces, but he seems more or less a little bit of a savant or an autistic. In fact I didn’t know anything about John Nash so I almost thought he was mentally retarded. I also found it very hard to believe Crowe as a graduate student at Princeton in 1947. His peers however fit the type just fine. There was Sol (Adam Goldberg from Saving Private Ryan) and Bender (Anthony Rapp), which these guys I could believe were working on their doctorate degrees in math, but Crowe just looked and acted (or make that over acted) out of place. However he did come up with his truly original idea that granted him and two other nominees any assignment they wanted, and that would be a position at MIT. The film begins with the dean of math Dr. Helinger (Judd Hirsch) hosting an introduction garden party where Nash makes an ass of himself. He then retreats to his dorm room and begins window art. The guy likes to draw his mathematical equations on windows. It was the 11th hour or bottom of the ninth before he actually showed Princeton his beautiful mind and on to MIT he goes. Now I don’t want to give away anymore of the plot but this is where he meets undergrad student Alicia Nash (Jennifer Connelly of Requiem for a Dream). She is the real star of this picture. Her presence graces every scene not only with her talent but with her smile. The more Crowe acts out Nash the more mentally retarded he appears. Sometimes he appears to have palsy at other times just a very pronounced limp. I don’t recall any paranoid person demonstrating these qualities, so it appears he has his mental and physical conditions confused. This is extremely disappointing considering that the director is Ron Howard (The Grinch) and I would expect so much more from him. Now the acting by Crowe as far as the story line goes, I have seen him do better. In fact everyone else in this picture presents a better acting performance than Crowe. Since I am choosing not to divulge many details of the plot, since I don’t want to ruin it for you, I will let you know that this film spans the time frame of 1947 through the nineties. In the beginning not only do they give you the time span but the year too, as if they think we can keep up with these mathematical geniuses. Okay now that I have vented about Crowe’s method of portraying a schizoid and the fact that he can’t play a twenty-something-year-old and the more paranoid the man becomes the more he limps! Okay what I liked about this film is the strength of Connelly’s character. I was also intrigued by the loyalty of Nash’s college friends. I mean for a completely unlikable man, those that chose to befriend him are the truest of friends. If you can get past Crowe, this is not a bad movie. It certainly has a good, strong story line. Also appearing in this movie is Paul Bettany of A Knight’s Tale as Charles, Ed Harris of Enemy at the Gates as Parcher, Christopher Plummer of Dracula 2000 as Dr. Rosen and Josh Lucas of The Deep End as Hansen. Despite my ranting I do give A Beautiful Mind a seven on the About-Movies.com scale. Pi.
Last updated: Saturday, October 28, 2006 05:37:35 PM Click Here to get back into frames.
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