Um, this movie wasn't an "original idea"... - A Beautiful Mind Reviews

Russell Crowe plays John Forbes Nash, Jr., who received the 1994 Nobel Prize in Economic Science, but not before almost getting kicked out of Princeton's graduate program in the 1940s after a furtive search for his "one original idea" led him to miss classes, spurn his classmates, and generally neglect academic obligations. Nash faced another obstacle, which figures prominently in the story told by the film: Beginning in the 1950s, Nash became a paranoid schizophrenic -- a condition that went undiscovered for years, even as Nash launched on a stellar career as an elite mathematician. A BEAUTIFUL MIND is a grand movie in the way that it takes a clever cinematic hook (but not a groundbreaking one, though obvious references to other recent films that have used this device would give away too much) to draw us into the terrifying world of schizophrenia. In his weekly NEWSWEEK piece, columnist George F. Will waxed optimistic, hoping that the movie would also usher in increased compassion and empathy for schizophrenics. A BEAUTIFUL MIND's greatest asset toward this end is Crowe's humane and balanced performance. Crowe avoids the cheap, gushy psychological disorder movie-of-the-week exploits, which almost single-handedly prevents A BEAUTIFUL MIND from becoming a beautiful bore. The other thing that redeems this film is Ed Harris, strategically cast as a character whose credibility is crucial for the central technique to come off as the filmmakers intended. But, despite its likely salutary social impact, and solid performances from the cast, A BEAUTIFUL MIND is ultimately a very safe movie that takes no chances, and never goes out on a limb. Early on, Nash manages to stay in school by solving a classic unsolved problem relating to the proof for the isometric embeddability of abstract Riemannian manifolds in flat (or "Euclidean") spaces. Don't know what I'm talking about? Neither do I, and I saw the movie! BEAUTIFUL MIND assumes that Nash's brilliance can be assumed and then subsumed into the backdrop, without much of an attempt to make us understand what makes his ideas brilliant. The closest the movie comes to doing this is a scene in which Nash is taken into a room with sheets of seemingly random numbers plastered on the walls. But, Nash is able to see certain numbers "light up" from the swarm of digits and to see patterns in the random-appearing sequences. The movie might have used such cinematic techniques in a few more choice spots to help us better appreciate Nash's genius. With genius, of course, comes madness, and this is a thought that is intimated, but never addressed, far less fully explored by the movie. Nash himself has stated, "I would not dare to say that there is a direct relation between mathematics and madness, but there is no doubt that great mathematicians suffer from maniacal characteristics, delirium and symptoms of schizophrenia." In 1998, a movie called PI explored the obsessive-compulsive nature of mathematical research in ways never approximated by A BEAUTIFUL MIND. In the end, MIND is the inspirational triumph-against-adversity movie par excellence; a fault mitigated by the fact that the story is apparently true to a tee to John Forbes Nash, Jr.'s real life-story; by the execution of the film as standard mainstream fare; and by the resourceful use of its central story-telling device. (CAVEAT LECTOR: Most critics have assessed A BEAUTIFUL MIND much more generously than I have.) (Carlos Colorado)