Ron Howard's
Oscar-winning film, "A Beautiful Mind," is, on
the surface, an easy film to peg. It is the
story of John Nash (Russell Crowe), one of
America's most brilliant mathematicians and also
a man diagnosed with schizophrenia.
Crowe's performance of Nash, who was awarded the
Nobel Prize for his work on game theory, is a
multi-layered performance in which Crowe
wonderfully captures the brilliance and the
tragedy of a man who could almost hypnotically
draw individuals into his life while
simultaneously living his life aloof,
anti-social and unaware of anyone's existence
but his own. Crowe's Nash is not an easy man to
love, and yet he is impossible to not love. From
the 1940's to the present, Nash is a man who is
absolutely respected as brilliant and who may
have lost it all without the absolute love and
devotion of the woman whom he would marry,
Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). Connelly's
Oscar-winning performance is one of silent
power...It avoids the histrionic highs and lows
of many Oscar winning performances, but instead
features Connelly's innate ability to merely
look at the screen, smolder and communicate with
a look, a glance, a gesture, a word.
When Nash is drawn into Military work, his break
into madness becomes a true snowball of absolute
psychotic fury. While Howard's direction doesn't
fully descend into this fury, neither does it
become victimized by it. We are allowed to see
the descent, to feel it and to experience
it...yet, much like Nash, we never succumb to
it.
After 10 years of working inpatient psych, I
watched family after family destroyed by
schizophrenia. I began, at times, to feel
hopeless that we were ever truly helping anyone
despite the medications, the therapies, the
support, the acceptance, the safety and the
nurturing. The truth is that many lives are
destroyed by the illness, but Nash is a reminder
that there is always hope and it is when we are
able to love and to build upon that love with
treatment, structure and, yes, a little luck
that we are able to find those moments, big and
small, of healing.
It is easy, in many ways, to make a film about
mental illness. It is easily transformed into
the tragic or the comic...it is easy to create
power, because the power of mental illness is
inherent. Howard's "A Beautiful Mind" works
because it is not a film about mental illness,
but a film about John Nash, who lives everyday
of his life with a diagnosis of schizophrenia.
"A Beautiful Mind" works because Crowe
surrenders his macho, male image and literally
becomes Nash through his gestures, his tics, his
mutterings and delusions. "A Beautiful Mind"
works because Connelly offers yet another of her
many brilliant performances in creating a woman
who is attracted not just to brilliance, but to
the man beneath the brilliance. "A Beautiful
Mind" works because the supporting players, such
as Ed Harris's Parcher, Paul Bettany's Charles
and Christopher Plummer's Dr. Rosen find the
nuances of their characters and take even the
smallest scenes and bring them to life. The
Oscar nominated score from James Horner, the
production design and the Oscar nominated
make-up are all exemplary in setting the
appropriate mood and tone for the film.
For all its brilliance, "A Beautiful Mind" never
completely escapes the constant fearful shadow
of the "disease of the week" syndrome. While the
script never fully falls into this trap, it
constantly feels as if it may. It is as if
Howard remained constantly aware of the
potential and would pull the film away from it
just as it appeared it may be descending into
its own madness. It neared the edge close enough
that I, on occasion, found myself distracted by
it. I found myself distracted by the
stereotypical schizophrenic moments. These are
the moments we find in every film about
schizophrenia or any other form of mental
illness...while some are accurate, some are mere
tiresome stereotype. At times, "A Beautiful
Mind" falls victim to both.
Minor script issues aside, "A Beautiful Mind" is
a wonderful film about a brilliant man. Director
Ron Howard and scriptwriter Akiva Goldman have
worked together to craft one of history's best
films dealing with the subject of mental
illness, and while I may not be convinced it
warranted its "Best Picture" win at the Oscars
it, nevertheless, remains a beautiful film and a
must-see for fans of truly great American dramas
based upon the life of one of America's
truly great, occasionally
tragic, but ultimately triumphant figures.
© Written by Richard
Propes
TC Candler's Comment
Sublime
performances all around coupled with a good
script and tripled with Ron Howard's assured
directorial hand makes "A Beautiful Mind" one of
the better films of the year. If you shed
a tear at the "pens" ceremony, then you're only
human.
Jacob
Hall's Comment
N/A
