Average Rating: 
Rating:  - "A Beautiful Mind"
"A Beautiful Mind" is one of the few films to look at mental illness in a real and positive way. It is also an amazing motion picture. Concerning the story of brilliant mathematician John Nash, played by the brilliant Russel Crowe, and his wife Alicia, played by the luminous Jennifer Connelly, "A Beautiful Mind" succeeds in taking the audience on an often intense and emotional journey where you care deeply for the characters.The film follow Nash from his college days at Princeton University where he makes a groundbreaking discovery, to his winning the Nobel Prize in 1994. John Nash courts Alicia, a beautiful young woman who is his equal intellectually and emotionally. They eventually marry and have a son, and then John is diagnosed with schizophrenia. I won't disclose the film's jaw-dropping twist, as some reviewers have. Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman have come under fire for "cheating" the audience, but this method was used to make the viewer aware of how schizophrenia works, and the huge effect that it has on people's lives. "A Beautiful Mind" would not work without the central performances of Russel Crowe and Jennifer Connelly. Crowe makes Nash such a rich and absorbing personality that you cannot help but be riveted to him. He works with subtle gestures and eye movements to personify John Nash, changing his entire body to be that of the character. That is real acting folks. This film is one of the chief reasons why Russel Crowe is one of the best actors working now. He makes us sympathize and love Nash, but never pitying him. Jennifer Connelly follows her amazing performance in "Requiem for a Dream" with this role. As the wife of the mentally tormented Nash, Connelly creates a woman of enormous strength and loyalty. She is every bit Crowe's and Nash's equal, and deservedly won an Oscar for her subtle and emotional work here. Together these two actors create two noble and real characters. Ron Howard also is excellent his his direction of the film, never letting the events become sensationalized or melodramatic. It is always real and heartbreaking. Above all, "A Beautiful Mind" is the uplifting story of a man who was able to conquer the demons within himself. As the elderly Nash says to Alicia in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "You are the reason I am here. You are all my reasons." It is a triumph of a beautiful mind, a beautiful man, and a triumph of unconditional devotion and love.
Rating: - One Of The Year's Best Picture!
A Beautiful Mind finally gives us a reason for Ron Howard to stay in the game. Some of his earlier work (Backdraft, and Ransom) I absolutely thought was trash. I dont mean to be so hipocritcal, but its just my opinion. But then came "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" and now "A Beautiful Mind". To say the least this film deserved the Oscar for Best Director and Best Picture. It definitely deserved the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Connelly, who did a tremendous job. But as fate would have it, it lost Best Actor. Which Im not really throwing everything down on Denzel Washington, because he did turn in a quite great performance, but if you see both you will see why Russell Crowe should have won it hands down. This true story is about a brilliant Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe) who after several years without treatment finds out he has schizophrenia. Along with the help of his beautiful wife (Jennifer Connelly) John tries to beat the schizophrenia with willpower. Which like he says "its just a problem without a answer. That all. I solve problems, remember?" If you havent seen this work of art yet, you should do so. Its filled with brilliant performances and yet a great DVD to put in the collection.
Rating: - A Little Hard to Watch, but Worth Your Time
I'm not going to say that A Beautiful Mind is one of the best movies I have ever seen - because it's not. My tastes run toward quirky films by Joel and Ethan Coen (see my other reviews). But if you're considering seeing this movie, I'm here to tell you that it's not a waste of a movie ticket. Even at evening prices.A Beautiful Mind is a very well-done (and mostly true) biopic of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician with a penchant for cracking complicated codes. An economic theory he developed while in graduate school earned him a large amount of notoriety - and a job teaching at MIT. Unfortunately, as his high-prestige job progresses, John spirals into a vicious case of schizophrenia with delusions, making it hard for his wife (Jennifer Connelly) and son to live with him. Russell Crowe, who up until this point I'd written off as a pretty boy, does some really fine acting in this movie. Character actress Jennifer Connelly, who hasn't had a lead role in a major motion picture for some years, also does well as John's long-suffering former student and wife. Ed Harris, who's good in just about anything he does, also has a secondary role. The movie moves a little slow at first, outlining John's early days as a slightly odd pure mathematics student, but gets exciting soon after that. Don't give up on it! The scenes where John's mental illness sends him out of control were a little difficult for me to watch (insulin shock therapy, being chained to the bed, etc.). However, they are an essential part of the movie and I'm glad they were left in. The movie is fairly suitable for family viewing, with light to moderate cursing and a few risque situations thrown in (Crowe's character tends to be very blunt about his desires for Connelly, simply because he doesn't know how to be any other way). Overall, one of the best big-budget movies this year. Don't miss it.
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