Friday 7 June 2013

''A Beautiful Mind'' (2001 movie)- Review

Directed by: Ron Howard
Released: 2001
Country: United States

Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Josh Lucas, Christopher Plummer, Vivien Cardone, Anthony Rapp, Adam Goldberg

Genres: Biographical drama

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Review

Ron Howard's ''A Beautiful Mind'' is based on the life of John Forbes Nash Jr., an American mathematician and Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film vividly explores Nash's experience with schizophrenia, his struggle against the delusions he experiences as a result of the condition, his doubt about what is true and what is not, and we see how he fights against the disorder and though the disorder remains, he eventually has faith in himself. Ultimately, the film leaves us both teary eyed and smiley. A Beautiful Mind is beautiful like it's name, deep and touching.

The first part of the film explores the young Nash's (Russell Crowe) life in university. He befriends his roommate, Charles (Paul Bettany). Some years later, he falls in love and marries Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). Eventually, a man named William Parcher (Ed Harris) gives him the responsibility of cryptography; he has to unravel secret codes and plots of the Soviets. He finds the meaning of the encryption, and eventually, he gets very absorbed in this very secret task. Eventually, he becomes extremely panic stricken that his work may bring him extreme danger. He starts acting very strangely, and is sent to a psychiatric facility. There, his wife wife Alicia comes to know from Dr Rosen (Christopher Plummer) that John has schizophrenia. And then Alicia comes across shocking truths: John's best friend, his old friend, Charles, had been only his delusion. Not only that, Nash's extremely secret work of cryptography and the man named William Parcher had also been simple delusions. Alicia is shocked, but is determined to convince John of the fact. John cannot accept the fact that his best friend was just his delusion. Charles, his niece Marcee, and William Parcher continue to haunt him. But eventually, he works hard to make himself believe that they are his delusions, to make himself become aware of his disorder.

From the very first, the three delusional characters, Charles, Marcee and Parcher, seemed so very realistic both to John, and also to the audiences. When we come to know that these three characters are nothing but delusions, we are shocked as well. We see these delusional characters both from John's point of view and the point of view of the world. John comes to know that these characters are delusional, but the three characters are themselves so strong and demanding that at first he finds it hard to ignore them completely, but later, of course, he starts regaining his mental strength to finally overcome the serious disorder.

The film was so well scripted and acted! Russell Crowe's performance is m0re than excellent. As Nash, a brilliant mathematician suffering from schizophrenia who eventually is successful in overcoming his disorder, Crowe is just excellent. Jennifer Connelly as the very supportive wife Alicia is great. The screenplay by Akiva Goldsman, adapted from Nash's biography of the same name by Sylvia Nasar, is very vivid and touching as well.

Ron Howard presents a very excellent and memorable film with A Beautiful Mind, sweet and touching. I'd recommend it to everybody.

4.5 out of 5




No comments:

Post a Comment