Rating:
Director: Ron Howard
Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman
Director of Photography: Roger Deakins
Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris
| A BEAUTIFUL MIND Rating: Director: Ron Howard Producers: Brian Grazer, Ron Howard Screenplay: Akiva Goldsman Director of Photography: Roger Deakins Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris |
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Review by: Warren
Curry
1/09/02
Ron Howard's latest work is bound to take more than a few people by surprise. Lacking the saccharine (save for the last 15 minutes), which has been the bane of his directorial career, A Beautiful Mind is a wisely constructed, often challenging depiction of the strength of the human will. Based on the life of Nobel Prize winning mathematician John Nash, the film benefits immensely from strong lead performances by Russell Crowe (even with the inconsistent and slightly strange accent) and Jennifer Connelly, as well as Howard's apparent realization that a mature audience doesn't need to be told what to feel. They only need to be given characters and a story worth caring about.
Beginning with Nash's (Crowe) years as a Princeton graduate student, we are immersed in his world, as he struggles socially and academically; the only escape from Nash's mental prison arrives in the form of his accommodating British roommate Charles (Paul Bettany). Along with his studies, Nash also works as a leading Cold War expert for the RAND Corporation, a development that foreshadows future problems. Succeeding and surviving, if not necessarily overcoming these problems, Nash becomes a professor at MIT, where he meets and falls in love with Alicia (Connelly), a beautiful and smart young woman, who he later marries. On the surface, Nash seems well, but his tumultuous life is completely uprooted when a mysterious government agent (Ed Harris) enlists Nash's services, and the man's computer-like mind crashes from sensory overload. What remains is a genius, but one who is diagnosed with a severe case of schizophrenia. A few gargantuan obstacles beset his already bumpy road to recovery - most burdensome is the discovery that his mind has created a few very major illusions. Nash, and the audience, is then left to question just about everything and everyone past, present and future.
To reveal these illusions would be a critical disservice, and this reviewer is still surprised and exceedingly impressed by the path in which the director chose to construct the story. The atmosphere he creates is disorienting, unsettling (did you ever think you'd hear a Ron Howard film described with these adjectives?) and vastly rewarding. His handling of Nash's character is also a superb departure - Nash isn't the world's most likeable or even sympathetic character; his flaws are what make him so intriguing. Early on, we see Nash fail miserably in an embarrassing and offensive display in asking a woman on a date, and these very real touches are what Hollywood so often misses in building a protagonist. Yes, this feels like a studio movie, but one that has its feet firmly planted on the ground.
A minor misstep is the lack of illustration of the beginning of Nash and Alicia's relationship. One has to wonder just what she sees in this socially inept, if cerebrally brilliant man. The relationship develops well after the two are married, but arriving at that point feels like a skipped chapter.
There's also the matter of the ending - let's face it, Howard has always had his heart a bit too much in the right place and here he dives headfirst into scenes of self-congratulation. This time, however, I'm willing to indulge him, and the fact that even my jaded outlook can't be completely rankled by this sappiness speaks volumes about the strength of the movie that precedes it.
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