A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Directed by Ron Howard
Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris
MPAA: PG-13
Grade: C+

As everyone knows by now, A Beautiful Mind tells the story of John Nash, a genius mathematician that battled schizophrenia throughout his life. Nash had a hard time "fitting in" with society but he also had the gift to see potential outcomes for mathematical formulas and social interactions way ahead of time. He was a gifted visionary that could calculate probabilities and mathematical theories far beyond his contemporaries. However, hindering this gift were unstoppable delusions, paranoia and subsequent battles with his own mind.

The story of John Nash is an incredible one, and the job Ron Howard has done here to bring this tale to life is commendable. The acting is quite good, especially Jennifer Connelly, one of the best actresses in the biz right now. Her work in Requiem For A Dream is really acting at its finest, and I suspect that she was awarded the Best Actress Oscar not only for her work here, but for her work in Requiem.

The soundtrack for A Beautiful Mind was also nominated for an Academy Award, but it presented some major problems for me. Every time I started to really draw myself into the story of A Beautiful Mind, I was thrown out of the scene by an overbearing soundtrack- specifically the overly dramatic strings. The strings in this film seemed to overpower every scene that contained emotional significance.

Why they felt the need to telegraph the scenes so much is beyond me, because the actors seemed to carrying the film without all of the heavy handedness. But hey, this is Hollywood, and every Oscar caliber film today seems to be overstuffed with John Williams type strings nowadays.

A Beautiful Mind did indeed win the Best Picture Oscar, as well as a Best Actress award for Jennifer Connelly, a Best Screenplay award for Akiva Golsman and of course, a Best Director award for Ron Howard. I guess it is just further proof of how much the Academy wants their top awards to go to wholesome, uplifting tales of moral standing. That's fine, they have an agenda and are doing their best to further it.

But as for me, I simply want a movie that is gripping, not so formulaic and yes, maybe a little bit of a ride. A Beautiful Mind was just too obvious to me (the soundtrack certainly didn't help) and despite some fine acting performances, I can't rank it among the best movies I saw in 2001.

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