A Beautiful Mind.
(2001)
Starring Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly,
Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg
Directed by Ron Howard
Written by Akiva Goldsman
Studio Universal
If only this was the first review written by anybody on this widely acclaimed movie. But that’s not the case, obviously. This is just to prove to myself that I would not make a monkey out of myself when given a task of creative writing.
This movie is about the 1994 Nobel Prize winner for
Mathematics – right. Wrong. He won the Nobel for economics. The same year as
Mr. Arafat won the Nobel Prize for his
efforts to create peace in the Middle East. I don’t know why I mentioned that –
maybe because half the world remembers that he won the Nobel, where as only a
handful knew that Dr. John F Nash won the same coveted prize – and that his
work did change a few things in the world. Unfortunately, the same cannot be
said for Mr. Arafat.
On to the movie – As
usual, Russell Crowe gave a hundred and ten percent. One wonders what goes on
behind the curtains when the Oscar committee decides who takes the honors come
Oscar night. Surely our Aussie mate deserved it. Don’t you think so?
Jennifer Connelly was
charming as Alicia, Nash’s wife. What you would give to have somebody like her
on your side. Wasn’t the movie was as much about Alicia as it was about Nash?
The acceptance speech at the Nobel ceremony was pretty well composed and touched the right chords with ‘the physical, the metaphysical and the delusional’ world while he credits Alicia as the reason he’s been able to go on: “You are all my reasons.” In reality though, he never gave an acceptance speech!
It’s a great movie to
watch – especially if it’s at your local dollar fifty cinemas.
Rating:3.5/5
Other interesting sites: John F Nash, Jr - Autobiography
Mistakes in the movie!
Read the debate at BBC.
© Ambrish Varma
July’2002