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A Beautiful Mind
(Reviewed December 9, 2001)
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If you have seen its TV ad or theatrical trailer, you will think you know exactly where this movie is headed. Well, you do--and you don't. For once, this is a movie that veers off in an unexpected direction
that ends up making perfect, satisfying sense.
"A Beautiful Mind" gets off to a slow start. You will worry that Russell Crowe is pulling a "Rain Man" act, because his mushmouth line readings and air of general oddness threaten to lapse into caricature,
but he manages to walk that tightrope without falling off. (Unlike Kevin Spacey, whose look-at-me-being-stupid performance in the abominable "The Shipping News" is embarrassingly unconvincing.)
Crowe plays mathematician John Nash, a social misfit who wrestles with his personal demons while knowing he has brilliance locked inside his head. The jaw-droppingly beautiful Jennifer Connelly plays
his wife Alicia with restraint, subtlety and strength.
Director Ron Howard has made a movie for grown-ups, which is a cause for celebration in itself these days. Parts of Nash's true story have been altered for dramatic effect and others have been
made up entirely, which is unfortunately common whenever Hollywood makes a biography. But this time the end result works so well that those sins are forgivable...or at least easy to overlook.
Mature, thoughtful and very moving, "A Beautiful Mind" easily ranks as one of the best movies of the year.
Back Row Grade: A
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