It all adds up beautifully (A Beautiful Mind (DVD))

Member Name: george_lazenby

Product:	A Beautiful Mind (DVD)
Date:	02/03/02 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Crowe , Connelly, Howard (curses, why didn't that begin with 'c'?)

Disadvantages: Occasionally moment of sentimentality

I don't know about you, but there's nothing I like more of a Friday evening than to go out and watch a jolly flick about a schizophrenic maths genius. I just can't get enough of number-obsessed loons, I can watch them all weekend.

Actually, the timing and casting of 'A Beautiful Mind' is probably fortuitous for UK audiences - it hits the screens at the same time as news of its Oscar nominations, and the advance word that the star - Russell Crowe - may be looking at a second Academy Award in as many years. And even though the subject matter may not appeal, Mr Crowe, who cleverly had a fight with a BBC executive last weekend at the BAFTAs, nicely boosting the film's profile, is probably a sufficient draw to put bums on seats.

To be honest, it wasn't the maths or the psychosis that put me off, simply the fact that the advert made this look like every other triumph over adversity biopic, where the facts are whipped up into an inspirational blancmange that tastes of nothing. The fact that 'A Beautiful Mind' was written by Akiva Goldsman, whose credits include such classics as 'Batman Forever' and 'Lost in Space', was equal reason to think to myself 'what time is 'The Mothman Prophecies' on?'. Indeed, the film's one major flaw is the latter section of the script, which rather glosses over aspects of Nash's life which make the story a bit less inspiring.

And yet, this is a bloody good film. For one thing, the story is actually fascinating - John Nash was a maths genius who did ground-breaking work on game theory (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1994), despite having suffered from schizophrenia for most of his life, and being consumed by delusions for long periods. For another, at 2 hours and 15 minutes, the film is not too long (big Hollywood dramas are regularly over 2 and a half hours when they have no great story to tell). And the acting is quite stunning.


Crowe makes absolutely no attempt to make Nash anything but awkward and hard to like. He's difficult, remote and anti-social (the natural instinct of most actors would be to humanise Nash, and Crowe won't). Moreover, he evokes the fear and paranoia of the mentally ill, aware that their view of reality is skewed but unable to restore mental equilibrium, with complete conviction. Jennifer Connelly, whose good looks and nice figure has condemned her to playing bimbo roles for most of her career, is equally good as Nash's wife, especially as the part consists largely of providing a sane foil for Crowe. There are superb character turns from Ed Harris as a sinister secret agent, and Paul Bettany (my current favourite British actor) as Nash's exuberant English friend.

The film was made by Ron Howard, who specialises in low-key, intelligent prestige filmmaking - in his own quiet way, he has managed to make a string of superb films, starting with 'Splash', and crossing genres and boundaries to cover 'The Paper', 'Apollo 13', 'Ransom' and even 'The Grinch', with rarely a clinker to speak of. What he manages to do with great skill is animate the excitement which patterns and numbers provokes in Nash's confused and extraordinary mind. It's a light, frequently very funny film - this means that Nash's virtual imprisonment in madness in the third quarter of the film doesn't quite have the same force as it might, but equally ensures you're not locked up in some dour Issues movie about mental illness.

Indeed, because much of 'A Beautiful Mind' is so sparky and fast-moving, the film is wholly successful in its attempts to elicit sympathy for the mentally ill, the central plea that people with psychological problems be integrated and understood (the film depicts Nash finding his own way to deal with his illness, remaining outside institutions after traumatic experiences at th
e hands of well-meaning psychiatrists). It's very well made and acted, and remarkably entertaining, especially with some of the surprises inherent in the story.

You might be looking for something more exciting, but this is the good stuff, and you probably won't see a better piece of screen acting all year, whatever the Academy's voters might have to say about it.

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