Ron Howard's - A Beautiful Mind-2001

This movie won 4 Academy awards, 2 for director Ron (Opie) Howard , 1 for Jennifer Connelly, and one for the screenplay author, Akiva Goldsman. . Did it deserve such acclaim? Yes, it did That’s the short answer. But it became the best picture based almost entirely on the strength of Russell Crowe’s performance, who did NOT win an Oscar.. Horner’s haunting music (Titanic) also failed to receive an Oscar.

Not having seen this in the theater, I waited out the DVD version. But I bought and read Sylvia Nasar’s biography cover to cover first. The book is well written, and gives a depth to the personality (or lack of it) that the movie never could do. For one thing, Sylvia Nasar understood, at least somewhat, John Nash’s contribution to the field of applied Mathematics, and it was clear that Ron Howard did not. The book paints a much clearer picture of this astonishing man. The movie romanticizes him.

However I didn’t come here to bash the movie but to praise it. If calculus-o-phobia (fear of equations) has prevented you from seeing it, don’t worry. You won’t be expected to prove Reiman’s hypotheses. , or visualize Maxwell’s equations by the end of it. Howard deals with the brilliant contributions of John Nash in the best possible way, by not trying to explain them at all. In fact, the very essence of Nash’ work applied from Mathematics, comes from his work on game theory seems lost to Howard, and to most of the rest of us as well. But the essence of applying a cooperative strategy to economics, politics and negotiations should be obvious to anyone, even us.

Howard did take a few detours around some of the other important events in John Nash’s life (like his first relationship, to a woman he refused to marry , considering her beneath him, and another child as well) some bizarre proclivities including flashing on street corners, and some vaguely homosexual liaisons. He also missed Nash’s years abroad, trying to acquire Swiss citizenship in the frenzy of his severely delusional period, and the fact that his wife and sister did have him committed, and a few other pretty important details. The movie glossed over Nash’s fiercely competitive spirit and brutal intellectual arrogance that were his key personality traits in the early years. It would have been hard to create a sympathetic character out of the real mess that was John Nash’s life. I am satisfied with the flick. It can stand on it’s own, without a plot by plot comparison.

SCHIZOPHRENIA (Plot, more or less)

The real theme of this flick is about what being certifiably nuts does to your ambitions, your life and your family. Unlike John Nash, most schizophrenics get a one way ticket to nowhere handed to them with their initial diagnosis. Nash was incredible by the fact that he once again became a productive human being, on strength of will alone. This much is true, and for no other reason, this depiction of John Nash is justified, and carries with it a core of truth, even if the details were fudged.

In the 40's, and even today, schizophrenia was a much abused diagnosis, a sort of catch all for bizarre behavior that colored “outside the lines” of how normal people functioned. One might be tempted to think that Nash was a victim of such misdiagnosis. He certainly had some key characteristics of bipolar disorder in the early years. However, as you learn more about this intense man, who few liked, and see the world through his eyes, it becomes increasingly clear that he is indeed a paranoid schizophrenic, hearing voices, with visual and auditory hallucinations, a victim of a vast conspiracy. The movie implies a sort of benign construction of benevolent personalities (Marcee and Charles) as well as the evil ones (Parcher) giving a ‘real’ presence to the characteristics of delusions by creating characters for them, making the audience realize that there are TWO sides to a well constructed delusional system, the comforting and the threatening. It was a brilliant construct (although fictional to the life of John Nash) giving the audience the opportunity to understand this process from the inside.

The pattern of first break for a schizophrenic typically occurs in young adulthood, and it is probably not a gradual process that could be ignored for a lifetime. There is considerable evidence that it is genetically passed on, as it was to at least one of the sons of the mathematician (both named John). That isn’t to say that Nash wasn’t a bit odd from the get go. Genius personalities were given some leave way to be odd. Nash was known certainly by his oddness and his lonely, one man show status, but his acquaintances thought he “knew the rules” for social interaction, and chose to ignore them. What is the truth? Well, I wasn’t there. And neither were you.

The triumph of Nash in beating his illness probably does stem from his wife and friends protecting his genius from total destruction by the treatment methods of the day. Some of them were brutal. That Nash survived the INSULIN SHOCK therapy , and was able to work afterwards, is pretty incredible. While they were scrambling pathways, they must have missed a few dark alleys. Alicia Nash does get credit for preventing the destruction of the genius that was John Nash. But was it always an act of pure-hearted devotion, based on “love”? I suspect there was more to it than that.

In a nutshell, meet John Nash, graduate student coming to Princeton to “be somebody”. He never went to class, and broke all the conventional rules for academic success...waiting for that truly original idea to occur to him. It does. It is just after World War II in that edgy era of film noir, pre-dating but predicting the Cold War to come. In short, the world, and particularly the genius personalities that made it possible, were in shock over the use of the Atomic bomb.
He is given a post graduate position with some top secret clearance required, and we start to see a different side develop.

John Nash is seen as socially awkward, and unskilled in romancing girls. He doesn’t particularly like people and they don’t particularly like him (people are generally intolerant of anything different). He is arrogant, but unmistakably brilliant. He was also quite dashingingly handsome.

“Despite my privileged upbringing, I’m actually quite balanced...I have a chip on both shoulders”. The few touches of comfort in the mathematician’s life come from his friendship with his roommate Charles.

His advances to girls in bars generally earn him a slap in the face. Then one day, Alicia Larde, beautiful , intelligent, shows up in an under graduate class. She pursues Nash, but he doesn’t run. They marry, she fully aware of his genius, as well as his being different by his genius, from anyone else she had ever known. When she is pregnant, Nash starts to unravel. He becomes disheveled, incoherent, and uses pressured speech He has endless scraps of paper with writing on them plastered on his walls. . He seems to be afraid all the time. This earns him a trip to the funny farm.

We follow a painful exposition of Nash breaking down, and how, in the end, it was proven to others. He spends some time in the institution, and when he goes home, he is on medication. But he believes that the drugs prevent him from “working” in his field. So he stops taking them.

This will be the turning point in the movie. And although you already know the end result, you won’t want to miss the brilliant performances of Jennifer Connelly as Alicia and Russell Crowe as Nash as they together, move through their lives to the present.

The Cast

Russell Crowe as John Nash. He was brilliant in this role. I am not interested in his personal attitudes or antics off screen. But give the man his due. He was wonderful in this role, making the audience feel with heartbreaking impact how very alone a man must feel when he can no longer distinguish between what is real and what is not. His limping and shambling as the older Nash were not typical of the REAL Nash whose quick abrupt movements define a slightly different character. But Crowe was consistent and the character lives in his performance.

Ed Harris as Parcher, the villain, OSS later CIA man (and if you knew this fact of the agency change, you would know INSTANTLY that this was a delusional character) The essence of cold, unfeeling government concerns, Harris does a masterful job of giving “Big Brother” a face.

Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Larde Nash-I have liked this actress since Requiem for a Dream , and she does a good job here of keeping this character the anchor for John Nash’s connection to the world. Although I am glad she won the Oscar for her supporting Role, I felt she deserved it less than the lead perfor4mer.

Christopher Plummer as Doctor Rosen. Plays a stock psychiatrist (unlike the real Dr. Rosen who had a different personality) . He is presented as somewhat threatening and hard edged, a pretty standard stereotype, I guess. He was instrumental though in preserving John Nashes’ beautiful mind, by NOT treating him with the standards of the day. His best scene is getting punched by Nash.

Paul Bettany as Charles, the roommate. It will take quite a while for the audience to discover the true nature of this character, and his performance is extremely well done. He offers a bit of humor into the mix, in what otherwise could have been a dauntingly dark presentation of harsh realities.


Adam Goldberg as Sol, a friend of Nash, and one of the people who maintained their contact in Nash through the years. Has one terrific scene, involving “Harvey”.

Josh Lucas as Hansen, a colleague of Nash. His role is conflicting, and he represents a whole gaggle of people, none of them named Hansen. That may explain the antagonism but it doesn’t explain the gentle respect and honor of the later character for the elder Nash. Still, we needed someone to pin this role on, and I thought he managed it pretty well. In point of fact, Nash had more friends than he realized. (A guy named “Kuhn” told Nash about the Nobel)

Anthony Rapp as Bender, another colleague. Tweedledum to Goldberg’s Tweedledee.

Jason Gray-Stanford as Ainsley. Who?

Judd Hirsch as Helinger, the department head at Princeton. A necessary role, especially in establishing that Nash didn’t play by the rules.

Vivien Cardone as Marcee, Charles’ orphaned niece. The girl is key to John’s breakthrough and one of the most poignant touches found in this movie, when she holds out her arms for a hug from “uncle John”, and he walks on, ignoring her.

There are others, including one of John Nash senior’s real life sons, who are bit players in this movie, but probably don’t need me to praise or condemn their efforts.

A Word on the DVD

I have this far, avoided the simultaneous commentary. I can’t imagine Ron Howard to have anything to say that I need to hear, and the movie speaks well enough for itself. I would like to hear the commentary from the award winning screen writer though. The extras do give some interesting information, including an interview with John Nash himself.

Final Recommendation


This is a very entertaining and uplifting film event. I highly recommend it to everyone, no holds barred!

***Off Topic alert***- . I have an admission to make. I was married to a brilliant mathematician for eleven years, and I can attest to distinctly odd behavior. However odd behavior and a rational mind do NOT automatically imply that all genius personalities are schizophrenic. I imagine somewhere, Micah is still fantasizing about Maxwell’s equations, and has possibly made a critical discovery that only he and a few of his colleagues could understand. I would have loved to watch this movie with him, and then sent him off to wherever he goes, when the audience leaves the theater, and the lights go out.