A Beautiful Mind (Full Screen Awards Edition)

Buy This Item A Beautiful Mind (Full Screen Awards Edition) by Universal Studios  Available from Amazon  $11.99  on 9-23-2008     <I>A Beautiful Mind</I> manages to twist enough pathos out of John Nash's incredible life story to redeem an at-times goofy portrayal of schizophrenia. Russell Crowe tackles the role with characteristic fervor, playing the Nobel prize-winning mathematician from his days at Princeton, where he developed a groundbreaking economic theory, to his meteoric rise to the cover of <I>Forbes</I> magazine and an MIT professorship, and on through to his eventual dismissal due to schizophrenic delusions. Of course, it is the delusions that fascinate director Ron Howard and, predictably, go astray. Nash's other world, populated as it is by a maniacal Department of Defense agent (Ed Harris), an imagined college roommate who seems straight out of <I>Dead Poets Society</I>, and an orphaned girl, is so fluid and scriptlike as to make the viewer wonder if schizophrenia is really as slick as depicted. Crowe's physical intensity drags us along as he works admirably to carry the film on his considerable shoulders. No doubt the story of Nash's amazing will to recover his life without the aid of medication is a worthy one, his eventual triumph heartening. Unfortunately, Howard's flashy style is unable to convey much of it. <I>--Fionn Meade</I> Reader Reviews I do not like the film at all because it fails to depict John Nash as anything more than a one dimensional person whose only concern in life was to prove that he was superbly intelligent--intelligent enough to come up with some grand new idea. The film's popularity manifests the overarching value people place on intelligence. It is no wonder that Einstein has been so thoroughly worshipped that most people would likely agree that he was "Person of the Century"--regardless of how he treated his first wife and children. The film reveals no remorse on the part of John Nash for his having almost killed his only child. The film implicitly depicts him as thinking, "So what if I almost killed my son? What does his life have to do with mathematics?" In my view, he suffered from obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). He was obsessed with a desire to prove he was smart, and he likely had repeated intrusive thoughts about his possible inadequacy in this regard. He also displayed all sorts of ritualistic behavior. It was because of his OCD that he stopped taking his medicine--almost killing his baby as an apparent result. Of course, shrinks would never diagnose him as having OCD because society is too selfish to allow such a diagnosis. Imagine a shrink telling society, "Here is a pill that would have cured John Nash's disorder. If he had taken this pill, he would not have had the symptoms of OCD, so he would have ceased his dogged pursuit of that grand original idea. He, therefore, would never have received the Nobel Prize." Such a shrink might well lose his job. The film is phony as well, relying on melodrama to keep the movie from becoming downright soporific. And the repeated hallucinations involving the same "people," as well as the manner in which the medicines "cured" him of his hallucinations, I find quite laughable. To make matters worse, the film depicts John Nash as the helpless, ignorant individual being helped by nearly omniscient, nearly omnipotent, and purely benevolent society representing itself in the form of shrinks. The fact is, however, that society--including, in particular, shrinks--is far from being either omniscient, omnipotent, or benevolent, and the individual is not inherently helpless or ignorant. If you need to feel, "He got the Nobel Prize, so I could as well," then go ahead and watch the film. If you want to enjoy a movie with the whole family, watch something else.

A Beautiful Mind (Full Screen Awards Edition) Available from Amazon Price: $11.99 Updated on 9-23-2008.

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