#58 - A Beautiful Mind (2001)

A running gag in my high school class involved us suggesting our Math teacher to watch a film in class to get two hours of sleepy time. She was not that stupid and never fell for it (she was quite a good teacher too), but she kept saying "If we ever watch something, A Beautiful Mind would be a good choice". Because, really, how many non-educational films can you come up with that could relate to Math? Sadly, high school was over and we never got to see it. So I put it on the list. And let me be totally honest with you: this film is very overrated. It is a very good film, but I don't think it deserves all the praise it got.

A Beautiful Mind is a biopic on John Nash, a Nobel Prize winning mathematician played by Russell Crowe. Nash is brilliant and smart beyond belief, getting a Princeton University scholarship, coming up with a governing dynamics principle by himself,  even being hired by the US department of defense to crack encrypted Soviet messages. He also has a good personal life, having plenty of friends and ending up marrying a student of his (Jennifer Conelly). But, there is a catch. Nash is an obsessive, paranoid schizofreniac. And everything goes downhill once he is diagnosed.

 

Scribbling notes on walls: clear sign of insanity.

Despite that kind of premise, A Beautiful Mind doesn't fall into your typical "rise and fall" kind of story. Nash goes through some crappy moments but he is always trying to pull himself together throughout the film. That's one of the things I felt the movie did best: it conveyed that idea of unstability very well. It also did a good job at keeping us guessing what was real and what wasn't. Er... I guess this is the point where I stop giving away the film.

I was surprised to see Russell Crowe pull off the role of John Nash so well. After enduring my brother's massive fanatism over Gladiator (one particular week he played it on the VCR more than once a day), I can't shake the role off of him. The character itself is very interesting too; as far as I know it doesn't stick to the actual John Nash very well, but it still works. Jennifer Connelly is also really good as John's wife, and how much she managed to do with such a basic role. I also liked Paul Bettany and Ed Harris's performances, as Nash's supportive roommate and his boss, respectively.

But, if I keep saying the film is so good, why do I say it is overrated? Well, it feels like Oscar bait. No kidding, I kept imagining the trailer describing the film as "the inspiring story of a brilliant but flawed man, trying to fulfill his dreams while facing self-inflicted adversity". It sounds like an intentionally melodramatic and romantic film we have seen a billion times. And it made it, 4 Academy Awards. Including best supporting actress for Jennifer Connelly. Wait, what? Connelly is a really good actress and delivers a solid performance here, but the role itself is incredibly uninteresting.

 

This is as archetypal as the victimized but supportive housewife cliché can get. It doesn't deserve an Oscar.

Don't get me wrong: it felt like the intentionally melodramatic, formulaic and inspirational stuff that keeps wetting every film reviewer's pants, but nonetheless it is a very good film.