Ron Howard has certainly matured over the past years. From lighthearted flicks such as Splash, Gun-Ho and Willow to successfully done dramas: Backdraft, Apollo 13, Ransom, Edtv (just kidding folks) and now, A Beautiful Mind. This movie won 4 Oscars including Best Picture. Even though the movie only won 1 deserved Oscar for Best Writing, (Best director in my mind was David Lynch and Best Movie was without a shadow of a doubt Gosford Park), the academy gave the Best Actor award to Denzel's mainstream performance on Training Day, which I thought was comical. Don't get me wrong, Denzel was a superb bad guy, but Russell easily outacted him, his best performance. A Beautiful Mind is an incredible achievement, the acting is perfect and even if the script gets overly Hollywoodized at times,(term I use that means cheesy Hollywood moments a la Titanic) it still is an incredible experience from beginning to end.

The movie follows the real life of John Forbes Nash Jr, a math genius that suffered over the years due to schizophrenia. It details the rises and falls of Nash, the love of his life Alishia and his closest friends. The script is very well written, keeping you on your toes at all times. And for those who haven't seen it, the twist is incredible. I wont spoil anything other than you need to pay very close attention.

The acting as I said is exceptional. Everyone does their roles to utter perfection. Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Christopher Plummer, Adam Goldberg, Josh Lucas, Judd Hirsh...everyone; an incredible supporting cast that sadly didn't receive any nods from the academy, but the academy are pretentious snobs anyways. The beautiful Jennifer Connelly acted marvelously as the wife suffering because of his husband's condition. You feel for her on more than one occasion. And Russel Crowe gives the best performance of 2001. From his trouble at walking, to the way he talks, to his constant nervousness and when he is on the brink of insanity is all acted brilliantly. Not so many actors do perfect roles in their careers. Russel achieved his. Romper Stomper was his best performance, but with A Beautiful Mind, he breaks new ground. This IS his best performance.

The editing and cinematography are pure eye candy. Very crisp and bright colors highlighting the enormous production value. The ever great James Horner composes an incredible soundtrack, his second best.

The things that bothered me with the movie is well, the over glamorized clichés that seems to form part in dramas. For example: the stars in the sky scene. I could smell the cheese from my living room. Still, this is one of Ron's best movies in his ever growing A list filmography. Ron is good at these types of movies, the big-budget heartlifting dramas. Perfect performances, great script, great music, and overall, an excellent movie. 9/10.

The mind is indeed a beautiful thing. It is the reason for our ingenuity, artistic originality and maybe even our humanity. What happens however when the mind works against us? When it tricks us into believing that what is not real to be the actual, destroying our sense of being? This is what “A Beautiful Mind” tackles, a thought-provoking film based on a true story with lots of brain behind it, but more importantly, lots of heart within it.

Russell Crowe is John Nash, a mathematical genius who sees life through numbers. We curiously watch him as he observes a pack of pigeons and tries to formulate an algorithm for their feeding patterns; or when John witnesses a mugging, and he sets up the incident as vectors and summarizing the event through complicated theorems and formulas. John basically wants to explain life’s behaviors through precise mathematical proofs, but his own behavior is somewhat enigmatic itself.

He is a bit of a loner, an anti-social scholar at Princeton University, scribbling equations on chalkboards and windows that only 0.001% of us will understand. Social interactions are not quite honed, as he tries to get a girl to go out with him, but the few words that he does say includes something about exchanging bodily fluids. In time however, John forms a few good friends, and even manages to have a girl, Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) fall for him.
The performances are reliably excellent from its two leading stars. “A Beautiful Mind” is getting a lot of clout for the Oscars with its multiple Golden Globe nominations, which might mean another nomination for Russell Crowe for Best Actor (which he won for “Gladiator” and NOT “The Insider”…still quite upsetting). Crowe is great as John Nash, although sometimes he looks a tad bit old for the part. The beautiful Jennifer Connelly is wonderful too as John’s love interest, and boy does she know how to pick a good script. She has been involved in some of the best movies within the last four years, including 1998’s “Dark City” and last year’s “Requiem for a Dream”. She exemplifies classic beauty and knows how to add passion to her character.


Overall, “A Beautiful Mind” is a very good film with its mind and heart in all the right places.