Film Reviews

A Beautiful Mind

• Rating:
• Director: Ron Howard
• Starring: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connolly, Ed Harris.
• Details: US / 129 mins/ (12PG).

Beautifully acted but flawed in its depiction of both its subject and the illness 'A Beautiful Mind' gives a potted history of John Forbes Nash Jr., the Nobel Prize winning mathematician, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia. Nash Jr. has just won a scholarship to an exclusive university and his brilliance eventually leads to international fame. As his fame grows, so too does Nash's inability to separate what is real and what is not. Crowe gives a splendid performance as Nash, and Connolly also does fine work as his wife, Alicia. Where 'A Beautiful Mind' ultimately falters is with the screenplay and the director's insistence on spelling everything out for the audience, leading to a patronising depiction of a terrifying illness.

Review by Garreth Murphy