It's a decent movie. Not a masterpiece by any means, and didn't deserve Best Picture or Director, but a good film nonetheless. Great performances by Jennifer Connolly and Russel Crowe.

B+

Pretty good movie. No masterpiece but it definately has it's moments. Crowe soooo deserved the Oscar that year. Connelly is great too. Moving Film. A-

It's a shame this movie has such a bad reputation as an unworthy Oscar-winner. It's a well-made, well-acted film. I prefer Fellowship Of The Ring, Moulin Rouge!, and even Gosford Park over this, but it's still a very well-done movie. Russel Crowe was great in this. I grade it a B+.

C

Boring. There's no other way around it. The miracle of realizing one's insanity through never-aging friends just doesn't work all that well if the friends aren't even charismatic characters. That and I wish they' dealt a bit more with his theories that actually got him the Nobel, and not just tacked it onto the beginning and end leaving the whole middle to just be a regular story about a frustrated wife and her nuts husband.

Boo hiss...

Heh.

Anyway, um. Brilliant movie. A

Now, if I were to give A Beautiful Mind a grade in the C-range, I'd get one of these from Libs...

[-X or :mod:

Heh.

Don't tempt me.

I gave a B mainly because of Crowe's performance. He is the best thing about the movie. Jennifer is quite mediocre. The script is simply the weakest part. I don't see how anyone can deny that. It's way too conventional and hollywoodish. Ron Howard didn't take any risk and follow strictly by the formula. When a human drama doesn't have dark side or twists and turns, it loses its meaning.

Well, um, that would be an opinion, dearie. Heh.

I thought everything about the film was excellent.

Bah.

I'm going to have to finish writing tomorrow, so I'm going to watch this now and will have a review up before 3 PM tomorrow.

*heads for the home theater mumbling to myself that I wouldn't give a Russell Crowe movie the time of day if I wasn't veryimpressed with Libs' movie tastes * :pop2:

I hope this was worth the wait.

First, I'd just like to say, I completely dismissed even seeing this film because of a serious dislike of Russell Crowe. I knew it had my darling Jennifer in it, and most of you probably know what I think of her, but knowing she played his wife, I had absolutely no desire to watch the hated Crowe slobbering on her in front of me. It's a testament to how highly I regard Libs, that she only had to ask once for me to put all of my issues here aside and rent this film.

As I began watching, and Crowe first appears, a scowl immediately came over my face. The bitter thoughts started racing in my mind. I thought he appeared to be a little smug, but he was nervous acting in his body language sometimes. Now, I really dismissed this film to the point that I really knew next to nothing, so I had no insights about what the character was about. I just noticed he wasn't exactly somebody who appeared smooth in social settings (loved when he was slapped at the bar =D> ), and he sometimes didn't make eye contact when he was speaking. When he was teaching class, and the jackhammer construction outside was so loud that he shut the window, it didn't take long for my scowl to return as a student complained that it gets too hot with the windows closed, only to have Crowe reply "Your comfort is second to my ability to hear myself speak". I wanted to hit him, and it was at that point that I was wondering how on Earth I was ever going to make it through this damn movie.

Then, a little help came along as SHE appeared in the scene. :mirrorbow: It just doesn't get any better than that. I was happy to have my interest sparked, but again, my thoughts started racing, as I started thinking about how sour I was going to be watching him groping my woman later on. Thoughts of a possible sex scene turned my stomach. Not surprisingly, my reaction to seeing him kissing on her was not one of joy, as it felt like I was watching my ex girlfriend with my worst enemy, who she dumped me for, but I got over it, as it wasn't a long scene, and the story itself was developing enough to keep me interested. When Crowe gets a job with the government, things did pick up some, as him being involved in top secret black ops against the Russians was an interesting turn that I wasn't expecting to be a part of the story.

Then, an even bigger turn that I wasn't expecting came along, as it was revealed that Crowe's character was suffering from the mental illness, schizophrenia, and he was seeing people and hearing voices that really weren't there, including the government agent, played by Ed Harris, and his best friend and his young daughter/niece? (I can't remember how she was related) That just completely dropped my jaw, and the movie became very gripping from that point on. At first, I was enjoying watching Crowe suffering, being belittled, shaking in that bed with precautions taken so he didn't bite his tongue. Served him right, huh? That's when a strange affect started coming over me.

I started feeling sympathy for him. How did this happen? This was Russell freakin' Crowe, the bastard of Hollywood. My least favorite actor on the planet. But it gets worse. Not only did I start feeling sympathy for him, as it angered me to see the students mocking and making fun of him (the poor guy couldn't help it, and he wasn't hurting anybody ) , but I actually found myself being glad that he had my darling Jennifer to comfort him and support him. :yikes: I was glad he had her. I started really pulling for him. He wasn't Russell Crowe anymore, he was John Nash, brilliant mathematician, with a very sad mental illness. He became John Nash to me before the makeup (brilliant aging makeup, by the way) made him look less like Russell Crowe.

When he overcame all odds, and wins the Nobel prize for his theories in economics, well, how could anybody not like a story like that, and to see how Alicia was still with him as his best friend and support system was very touching. They say that behind every great man is a great woman, and this was a perfect example. Nash still saw imaginary people and such, but he had long since come to terms with his illness and learned how to deal with it as best he could, and accomplished great things in his life that most never will. A Beautiful Mind is a brilliant piece of cinema!

A

I really enjoyed the first half of A Beautiful Mind - nicely told story of Nash's early years at Princeton. But, of course, the movie-style schizophrenia has little to do with the real illness, and once he starts getting treatment the story went off the rails for me...
Acting was quite good - Russell Crowe was good, and his best friend at school - the guy who played Chaucer in Knight's Tale - was excellent. Also Jennifer Connelly sure looked amazing in the 50's styles - but by that point the story was heading for the dumpster...

3 out of 5.

An excellent film.

9/10 (A)

I saw this a long time ago and though it was alright. Since I'm older now, I'm sure I'd like it more, I'll have to rent it sometime.

B+

The movie receives a great deal of bashing because it won against FOTR and that undeservingly so. Maybe it wasn't the best movie nominated (that was Moulin Rouge) and not even the second best (FOTR), but it is still a great movie on its own. The acting is amazing and Russell Crowe delivers his all-time best performance (topping his Gladiator turn). Personally, I found Jennifer Connelly's performance a tad bit overrated. She was good, but didn't deserve universal praise. The same I thought on last year's Virgina Madsen's performance in Sideways. I guess, I am more of a fan of rather showy roles.

In any case, it is a well-done biopic which, in contrast to some recent biopics like Ray doesn't ever get boring because it doesn't go too much into detail. The twist worked well for me, even though after it, the movie tends to take the sentimental route a bit too much for my taste. Overall, a good movie deserving of its nominations, though.

I watched it a second time Monday night.

There are too many double threads... I found this thread and the thread in the thread archive is a different thread. (whoo, too many threads)

Anyways, I'm watching this later on, I'll post back when I'm done.

Unlike other bio pics (like The Aviator...), this one actually has strong sentimental value. A beautiful film. I definatly think Russel Crowe deserved an Oscar for this. (I should watch Training Day to clarify that...) I'm not too sure on Cinderella Man but hopefully its close to the same quality as this.

A

I think this is much like Ray...

Russell Crowe (boy did he get snubbed) made A Beautiful Mind. While the direction and screenplay are both solid, it's Crowe that makes this an intense look at schizophrenia. And, to think, Howard didn't opt to show how bad Nash's case really got...

B+

The score is brilliant.

It's a good drama, elevated by brilliant performances... how Crowe didn't win for this is beyond me. What a stretch from '99 to '01 for him, you could make a case for him deserving Best Actor 3 straight years, and he probably almost did it. Connelly was also quite excellent, those two really carried the movie, especially the middle section when he goes home from the hospital. The movie has a pretty good message about persistance, and I liked the question they face about whether living with a dulled life with the meds is any better or worse than living in danger and unpredictability from the schitzophrenia. Clearly Alicia was attracted to the crazy John...

My favorite part of the movie was the beginning though like bradley said, with Nash in college. I found him to be a pretty relateable character... I'm a little less dazed in public, but I find I'm happier alone and away from people too.

A few complaints I would have is that his game theory breakthrough at the beginning feels pretty underdeveloped, and the rest of his career and work isn't shown at all. I've also read on wiki that Howard took the safe route by eliminating some more controversial aspects of his life, to say the least, but I guess this wasn't the type of movie to go there.

Also, while I understand setting up the schitzo characters in the first half of the film to have a further effect on the audience when they wreck him later, it does feel a little too simple that the extent of his illness is three imaginary people walking beside him day to day. I'm not an expect on schitzophrenia, but from what I've read, there's a lot more to it.

As a whole, it's no Moulin Rouge, but it's not an embarrasment to the BP club either. It's a good film.

3.5/5

On a side note, is it just me or is it ironic as hell that Ron Howard is directing a movie where one of the lead character's lines says that work without innovation is useless, that people adequately repeating what is already done is worthless to him and to history. I wonder if he was poking fun at himself there.

I agree...


Oscar worth Performance, weak movie.

This was an excellent movie. There wasn't a minute of its running time when I wasn't completely absorbed in what was happening onscreen. Russell Crowe deserved to win another Oscar, while Jennifer Connelly earned hers. It's been a few years since I last saw it, but it still sticks out in my memory.

Grade: A

An amazing masterpiece of a movie. As a person with a schizophrenic brother, I could not be more proud of this film.

A+