| A BEAUTIFUL MIND |
2001 - USA
Director: Ron Howard - Reviewed by Thom
Although the Hollywood-happy ending is tempered by our knowledge of John and Alicia's lifelong pain and suffering, the whole package comes across as disingenuously tidy. Apparently, unseemly real-life details of John Nash's bisexuality and unfaithfulness were kept out of the film, and it's too bad because it's just this sort of authentic complexity that the film lacks. Jennifer Connelly (as Alicia Nash) is beautiful and her performance is fine, but at times her character is weakly motivated and her unsolicited early romance with Nash is just too good to be real. (Geek male fantasy #17: lovely woman pursues dorky guy because of his mathematical mind. Fantasies 1-16 have to do with logarithms and Lara Croft.) Russell Crowe's performance as John Nash is also good, but not great (for great Oscar-caliber Russell Crowe, see The Insider), and it's overacted in more than a few scenes. The other actors (Ed Harris, Judd Hirsch, Paul Bettany, et. al.) put in solid supporting work. Why the glowing reviews? My best guess is that A Beautiful Mind is a resilient love story with a lived-happily-ever-after ending that comes at a time when many people are particularly receptive to that sort of (false) reassurance. (A cynic might say it's also because Ron Howard is such a nice guy and Russell Crowe's star has reached its zenith.) (See here for Kerri's contrasting review.) (Read Jerry's interview with Ron Howard about A Beautiful Mind.) |
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As a story based on actual events, A Beautiful Mind serves primarily as a tribute to the extraordinary love and dedication of Alicia Nash to her husband. (I speculated aloud to my friend as we were leaving the theater that most people would not have made the difficult choices Alicia made were they in her situation.) Of course, it's also a tribute to John Nash's remarkable discipline and will to manage his disease, and his ability to accept and rely on the love and support of his wife. (As my friend commented, their joint decision to reject the conventional psychiatric wisdom of the day is also impressive.) But as a film, this is typical, sappy Ron Howard fare that is just plain ordinary before and after the sharp (and effective) turn at the midpoint.
