Directed by:  Ron Howard
Written by:  Akiva Goldsman
Adapted from the novel by:  Sylvia Nasar
Starring:  Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Christopher Plummer, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Judd Hirsh 
 

January 13, 2002

         Russell Crowe is beginning to make his career on playing character actors.  In Michael Mann’s The Insider, he delved deep into the role as tobacco industry whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand, who couldn’t exactly get along with people, but had integrity.  Now Crowe is playing Nobel Peace Prize Winner John Nash in Ron Howard’s new film A Beautiful Mind.
         Like Wigand, John Nash doesn’t quite get along with people too well.  He feels he’s superior in intelligence to most of his Princeton classmates and speaks his mind, even to the ladies.  This disposition of his lands him a wife who appreciates his straightforwardness, and lends reason to the plot twist that later becomes the catalyst for the story.
         Nash’s pretentious attribute is exactly what makes this plot twist plausible.  He sees himself as the best mathematician around, larger than life, and of course he needs to put his skills to use.  His involvement with the government, especially since it’s set during the Cold War, gives him purpose.
         The only real criticism of the film is it turns into a biopic in the last half hour.  The story propels the film up until Nash and his wife decide how they’re going to handle his problem, but then director Ron Howard tags on another half hour telling us the twilight years of Nash’s life.  It’s really unnecessary, and this 2 ½ hour film really should have ended at the 2 hour mark.  I’m not against long films if it works, but we didn’t see Nash’s childhood, so we really don’t need to see his final years.  A true story like this really needs to try and choose what to tell, and what can be left out.
         A Beautiful Mind can add itself to the list of films like The Usual Suspects, Fight Club, and The Sixth Sense, which take the audience for a different ride than they expected.  Like Fight Club, the twist comes at the midway point of the film, so you have time to digest it.
         Jennifer Connelly as Nash’s wife is quickly establishing herself as one of the best actresses around.  It’s nice to see her move up from independent films like Requiem for a Dream and Dark City into a high profile role like this.  And of course Russell Crowe hands in another character driven noteworthy performance, to the point of showing us Nash’s mannerisms. 
         A Beautiful Mind is a good film that could have been better if it spent more time in the editing room.  James Horner provides the film with an uplifting score that of course parallels Nash’s finally uplifting life.  John Nash shows us that even under the worst circumstances, people can still prosper.  Nash won a much-deserved Nobel Prize for his equilibrium equation that is used even today in economics. 
 

Recommended Alternatives:  The Insider (s: Crowe, Plummer), Requiem for a Dream (s: Connelly), Parenthood (d: Howard), Glengarry Glen Ross (s: Harris)

-Reviewed in Theater-

Best Actor Russell Crowe	Best Supporting Actor Jennifer Connelly
Best Score James Horner