Starring: Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg. Director: Ron Howard Writer: Akiva Goldsmith Studios: Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Pictures Rated: PG-13 (for intense thematic material, sexual content, and a scene of violence) Runtime: 2 hours 14 minutes Year: 2001 Coming back from the best film of 2000 (in my opinion), Ron Howard returns to directing with another great film based on the life of John Nash, a schizophrenic who managed to win the Nobel Prize in 1994. And while A Beautiful Mind isn't the best film of 2001, it still manages to be well directed, well written, well acted, and emotionally heartfelt. The story follows John Nash (Russell Crowe), who when the movie starts in 1948 is attending Princeton University. He isn't popular, and doesn't have any friends besides his roommate Charles (Paul Bettany), but is positive he can come up with a brilliant theory. He leads this to the extreme, and gets in trouble with the Dean for not attending classes, but he eventually comes up with a theory that, as his professor says, can get him into any place in the country. He also has the option of choosing two others to lead a business with him at an MIT College. Cut to about 5 years later, and Nash, as well as his assistants Sol (Adam Goldberg) and Bender (Anthony Rapp), are working at Wheelers, a branch of the MIT college. Nash is on a roll as far as work and lovelives. He is dating the beautiful Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and has begun working under top secret business for the secret service, more specifically a guy named Parcher (Ed Harris). He eventually proposes to Alicia and they get married. But after John starts acting crazy aftera government group tries to kill him, Alicia finds it her priority to check him into a hospital, where he meets Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer), who tells him he has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, and that Bender, Charles, and Charles's younger niece (Tanya Clarke), who he has been seeing lately, are all figments of his imagination. Alicia has also revealed that she is pregnant. Cut to a few years later, John is still battling his disease, while Alicia is trying to run the family. Nash is still seeing his visions, and still cannot decide whether they are real. Eventually, without going through the entire story, Nash overcomes his disease and manages to win the Nobel Prize for the theory he came up with at Princeton. The acting is terrific in this film. Jennifer Connelly is the best of the bunch. Her emotional and brilliant performance will get her the Golden Globe in two weeks. Russell Crowe is also fantastic, and also has a good chance of taking home an award. Most of the dream characters got annoying after a while, and at times they showed them for no reason. Christopher Plummer was also good in his small performance. The direction is also great, and it is hard to believe that Akiva Goldsmith, who also penned the Batman & Robin screenplay, wrote this movie. ****1/2 stars                                                       --Cory Thompson