CAST: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Josh Lucas, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Judd Hirsch.
DIRECTOR: Ron Howard
WARNING: Some SPOILERS and a misunderstood genius played by a misunderstood genius actor - straight ahead.
“Perhaps it is good to have a beautiful mind.
But an even greater gift is to discover a beautiful heart.”
- John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russell Crowe)
The great philosopher Aristotle once opined that there is no genius without a hint of madness. If that is true, then the brilliant mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. was certainly a genius. While still a student at Princeton University in the early 50‘s, Nash did important work in the field of governing dynamics and game theory - concepts which would have important effects on the military and global economics many years later. Eventually, Nash would receive the highest form of recognition for his work in the Nobel Prize - approximately 45 years after he first broached his theory.
The path to being a Nobel Laureate, unfortunately, was not as smooth as it sounds. You see, John Forbes Nash Jr. was also diagnosed as a schizophrenic, and he claimed to hear voices and directions from people no one could see but him. His mental troubles led to a professional and personal fall from grace. His wife Alice divorced him in 1963, then returned to his side in the 70’s. She was at his side when he received the Nobel Prize as an old man.
A BEAUTIFUL MIND is based on the biography on Nash written by Sylvia Nasar, and it is a heartbreaking one. It is three things at once: (1) a character study of a man whose endless brilliance was also tainted by a certain madness; (2) an account of that man’s tumble into the depths of despair, and then his eventual redemption because of one woman’s loyalty; and (3) an examination of the nature of love - and its transformative power.
I could break down the plot, but that would be doing the film (and you folks) a great disservice. See, A BEAUTIFUL MIND is something to be discovered on your own. Its surprises and revelations aren’t so much of a “Gotcha!” nature, which would be cheap, but rather of a more real and devastating variety. I haven’t read the book that it’s based on, so I can’t say how faithful the movie is. Suffice it to say, though, that on its own, A BEAUTIFUL MIND is a cinematic masterpiece.
BUT, EVEN MORE SERIOUSLY: I will say only three things before I leave you folks to discover this film: (1) Russell Crowe delivers his best performance; (2) Jennifer Connelly is finally given a role that she can sink her teeth into and deserved the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress that she received; and (3) why Russell Crowe was not given the Academy Award for Best Actor for that year is all the proof that I need that the Oscars are seriously flawed and based on politics rather than merit.
While Denzel Washington certainly turned in a great performance in TRAINING DAY, it is simply not on the level of Russell Crowe’s performance as John Nash in a BEAUTIFUL MIND. One can’t help but wonder if Crowe was being paid back by the Academy members for his outburst at the BAFTAs (British Oscars) right before the Oscars that year. If you folks will recall, Crowe had an altercation with the show’s director for cutting off his speech.
If that’s the case, all one can do is shake one’s head. How else to react to what is essentially a blatant snub of one of the best performances ever by an actor? Very, very disappointing - to say the least. The thing about Crowe as Nash is that I forgot I was watching Russell Crowe. Crowe became Nash. But with Denzel Washington in TRAINING DAY, as good as he was, I never once forgot he was Denzel Washington. You folks do the math.
The award should be about the performance. Not the actor, or his off-screen antics.
One good thing that came out of it all, though, is that Jennifer Connelly deservedly got recognized for her breathtaking performance as Nash’s wife. You folks have heard me describe certain performers with having “eyes that have a language of their own.” Well, Connelly is the epitome of that. She delivers one of the most emotionally transparent performances I’ve ever seen, and reminds us with it that the true meaning of love is sacrifice.
If I had do to pick just one word to describe A BEAUTIFUL MIND, it would be… beautiful.
Just like the performances of Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.
