A Beautiful Mind-If You Only See One Film About A Schizophrenic Mathematician...
I went into this film truly expecting to hate every second of it, as I hate mimes, but then I realized I had it all wrong. Then I realized, however, that there were no mimes involved. I just hate that pulling on an invisible rope crap they do. A Beautiful Mind on paper sounds like some sort of unending hell of a film that never ends and makes you suffer quietly, because if you don't you come across as some sort of barbarian. Yes, at first glance, A Beautiful Mind seems like the sort of film that you would be forced to see on a date to prove that you are indeed civilized and do not use paper towels when you run out of toilet paper. But A Beautiful Mind is actually entertaining and well done, if you can get past the obvious meanness that seeps from every pour of Russell Crowe.
Crowe, plays the real life brilliant, but highly dysfunctional schizophrenic mathematician John Nash, who despite his disease manages to make substantial contributions in mathematics. The movie focuses greatly on this struggle, his hallucinations, the impact the disease takes on his professional and private life. In short, its one of those “give me a statue” films that directors and studios love to make so much.
This is a simple film that could have almost been done frame for frame as a independent film, yet had a budget in the $50-$60 million dollar range. This is the largest flaw concerning the film as there is no real reason, except inflated salaries and mismanagement, that A Beautiful Mind should have been such an expensive undertaking. The budget is simply not on the screen and that is a shame. Yet, it stands as a remarkably successful film considering the subject matter and the fact that it stars the increasingly unlikeable Crowe.
No surprise that a film like A Beautiful Mind is all about the acting. Most of the performances are spot on fantastic. Jennifer Connelly is quite good as Alicia Nash and Christopher Plummer and Ed Harris add further depth to an already fine cast. However, this is not to say that the casting was perfect. Director Ron Howard, who has become one the most consistent directors in the business, I suspect should have been a little bit more on task with some of the other supporting roles. The eternally annoying Adam Goldberg and grating Josh Lucas both have parts that should have went to other actors. Adam Goldberg in particular is a bit of a perplexing casting decision.
It would be easy to overlook the fact that the heart and soul of this film and ultimately a good chunk of it's success is that the film is based upon the work of Sylvia Nasar's book and should not be confused as an original work by the wildly inconsistent Akiva Goldman. Goldman has also penned such audience abusing masterpieces as Batman Forever, yes it did feel like it was forever, and Lost in Space. Goldman does a decent job in adapting the work of others just don't ask him to develop any original scripts or you will be sorry. Punishing Goldman aside for his punishment of we the audience, A Beautiful Mind is a great film that all film true movie fans should see at some point. Its a testament to Howard that he has taken a concept that could have been truly painful and made a engrossing, entertaining film.
Story A
Acting A (Despite some really horrible casting decisions, the overall quality of acting is definitely quite good.)
Visuals A (A Beautiful Mind is well-shot from beginning to end.)
Originality/Innovation A (Making a film about a schizophrenic mathematician fly, well that's just plain impressive.)
Enjoyability Grade B+ (Yes, this is a great film and yes it is freakin' depressing.)
Home Theater/HD Factor A
Overall Grade A- (With A Beautiful Mind, Howard proves once again that he is talented and versatile. While the $50-$60 million dollar budget is a mystery, the fact that the film made over $250 million dollars globally is not. A Beautiful Mind 2? Don't laugh, they did make a Bambi sequel.)
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