Description
Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard and produced by long-time partner and collaborator, Academy Award winner Brian Grazer. A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe in an astonishing performance as brilliant mathematician John Nash, on the brink of international acclaim when he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. Now only his devoted wife (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly) can help him in this powerful story of courage, passion and triumph.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 17 reviews)

Fantastic Movie

This film definitely deserved all it's academy awards. This movie is amazing from start to finish and Russel Crowe does an amazing job portraying an intelligent man struggling with such a debilatating mental illness. This film will definately pull on your heart strings and get you inside Nash's mind and what it might have been like to be him. You also get to see the brillance of this man who won a Nobel Peace Prize. The special features add to the movie, answering some questions that the viewer still may have.

If you end up enjoying this movie, I highly recommend checking out the book as well. It's just as engrossing. I absolutely love this movie. But be prepared to tear up during the movie! Every time I watch it I do.
November 18, 2008

Good but needs more explanations

Since I was so determined to see this movie because I really wanted to see it when it was released but I never got around doing it... I figured I would make it up.

First of all, amazing acting from Russel Crowe. I am impressed. He seems to have a very broad register of roles and he delivers. He plays a very complex and different character, but he does it quite convincingly. I do not know John Nash and I haven't read his biography of which this movie is based on; but if the person in the movie resembles the real John Nash, I think he would have liked to partake in our discussion about introvertion! (Originally wrote this in a forum where the question about introvertion was brought up)

Jokes aside, first of all, I should start with saying I didn't consider the movie bad, but there were some parts I really wanted more elaborated to give it a higher score in my eyes. One of those is that we never really understood much of his friends etc, and how his schizofrenia was discovered. I also wanted more background detail of his life, and in frustration I even went to Wikipedia.

Suffice to say, I felt I got to know John Nash very well but all the other characters were like sidedrags. I didn't really know their names and I didn't understand why they were there at all. Also while I realize the movie is primarily about John Nash the person, not John Nash the matematician, it focused more on his schizofrenia than his mathematical work. Now, I find schizofrenia a very interesting mental illness, and while it was one of the major driving forces to see this movie I also wanted to know more about his work! It is briefly mentioned he invented the Nash Equilibrium among other things, but we never get to know what it truly means. Once again, Wikipedia resolved the problem.

I think the movie did well as a biography though, and I even saw two copies of the Swedish king and queen! ...I think. They looked very similar regardless.

It was a touching movie, but it could have been a little deeper. I didn't even understand Charles was his "best friend" until Dr. Rose mentioned it. As previously mentioned as well, while not maybe plot holes, they were at least holes that could have been filled and fleshed out a little more. While I understand this could have caused the movie to run closer up to 3 hours, I don't see much of a problem if people can have Lord of the Rings and Star Wars marathons...
October 30, 2008

Mental Illness Brought to the Screen Like Never Before

A Beautiful Mind is one of those rare movies that grace the silver screen once in a lifetime and touch our hearts and our minds in ways that other films which have attempted to replicate with similar material, have yet to achieve. For years movie goers have witnessed the world of mental illness and its horrors from an outside perspective, much like visitors to a zoo, observing life in captivity from the other side of the cage. With faithful attention to detail and a respectful compassion for a world not yet understood in its unending complexities director Ron Howard draws the audience into a world of mystery, deception and intrigue, far removing us from our comfort zones. Then, as suddenly as it all began, the rug is ripped out from under our feet, forcing us to accept the fact that a world into which we have been drawn is not always a world that others can see.

This is the basic technique of filmmaking which Ron Howard skillfully exploits throughout the film to powerfully illustrate the emotional and psychological impact of John F. Nash's schizophrenia, a mental illness that is often characterized by disturbing delusions, hallucinations and bizarre thought patterns. As one who has suffered from mental illness for nearly thirty years I personally recommend this film not merely for its intellectual and artistic delivery of the subject matter but primarily for its overall sensitivity to an issue that has remained a subject of personal controversy in many circles of conversation, even in a century revolutionized by constant scientific discoveries and the evolutionary restructuring of psychiatric treatment.

September 19, 2008

badbones

great movie. russell crowe does a bang up job. he reminds me of richard burton and if he keeps his ego in check should be a fan favorite for years to come.
September 01, 2008

Beautiful Insight

This movie is probably my favorite movie of all time, and that's saying a lot due to the fact that I own no movies but this one and do not own a tv or even go to the movie theater ever. It is rare that you see such a well put together film that takes you into the agonized mind and thoughts of someone suffering from a psychotic disorder. This is a definite must see and addition to your video collection.
April 05, 2008

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