You know, I didn't hate, or even really dislike,
A Beautiful Mind; to me, it was a fine film that had it's moments. I did really like Russell Crowe's performance as John Nash, however; the strong, physical presence of
Gladiator and
LA Confidential reduced to a meek, mumbling, shambling man. Besides the outward mannerisms, tics, and accent, Crowe really brought a nice combination of outright awkwardness, complete lack of social grace (always good for a few laughs), arrogance and vanity. He moved like someone too big for his own body. I thought the rest of the cast was pretty good too.
Pretty much
Spoilers, I felt the film lost steam after Nash was hospitalized and released. I was actually surprised to see that they ellided pretty much everything after 1957 to 1978. They did not just gloss over his divorce, his arrest for propositioning a man, etc., etc., they left it out entirely; from the outrage that the film has generated for playing fast and loose with the facts of Nash's life, I was kind of surprised to find out they just skipped over everything, which makes some of the criticism unfair IMO. As for the thriller aspects...Eh, I have mixed feelings. Yeah, it was kind of corny, but all things considered, I guess it was an effective way to introduce his delusions to a wider audience (I just don't know if a wider audience would have gone for two and a half hours of Russell Crowe mumbling to himself). I knew going in, that Charlie and Parcher were parts of Nash's schizophrenic delusions, and Howard and Goldman don't go to great lengths to hide these facts, nor do they cheat with the audience. I guess a fairer charge could be made of sensationalism.
Again,
A Beautiful Mind, good, not great, and certainly not among the best of the year; redeemed by the performances and some pretty interesting moments (the explanation of Nash's game theory with the girls in the bar; the chuckle I got from the garbage man scene).
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