Rating: 
Summary: A Masterpiece in itself
Review: Nobody would doubt that this is the big overall winner of the 2002 Oscars - one of the hardest-to-win Academy Awards competitions with big-budget movies like Lord of the Rings - when A Beautiful Mind bags 4 of the most prestigious awards of the show. Based on a true story, Australian actor Russell Crowe plays Professor John Nash, an Economics Nobel Prize winner, who was (is?) suffering from schizophrenia, a mental disorder that cripples one's ability to distinguish between the real and the imaginary. Director Ron Howard displayed utmost flexibility in his art direction, creating an atmosphere of suspense, frustration and puzzlement in the first half of the movie by portraying the imaginary characters as real. The plot abruptly changed the spotline to Mrs Nash (Jennifer Connelly), a symbol of love and a countering force against the debilitating effects of schizophrenia. The story ended with a sweet ring of true love (not romance) that transcends all obstacles, and a bitter defeat of the 3 imaginary characters - the persona of schizophrenia. A beautiful heart has written a beautiful mind. With a strong musical backing and superb acting by Connelly and Crowe (though Crowe surprisingly lost the Best Actor award), one must give credit for the telling of a true story, which has proved harder than telling a fictitious story (look at The Insider and the cheesy Titanic). A 6 star movie, if I can give. Well done, Howard!
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: I'm no judge of movies as I'm easily entertained and really just go to them to veg out for a while--movies are, after all--only passive entertainments--so I always get a kick out of those who take them so seriously (along with their own opinions about them). If I want serious narrative or story art, I can always read War and Peace or Madame Bovary. (That having been said, here I am writing a serious review about a serious movie!) But getting back to the main point, I really enjoyed this movie about a brilliant mathematician's meteoric rise to worldwide fame and academic renown, and equally quick descent into madeness. You wouldn't think anybody could make a film about a mathematician so dramatic, but the life of John Nash wasn't that of your usual cloistered academic. He was certifiably bonkers, and much of the movie is devoted to this long phase of Nash's life. I have some psychological background myself, and if I have one gripe about the movie is that the portrayal of paranoid schizophrenia is a little schizophrenic itself, but I didn't mind that too much (again, it's a movie, I don't even take my own opinions that seriously). So I'll just mention a classic comment by the famous British psychologist R.D. Laing, who worked on schizophrenia much of his career: "A schizophrenic is a person the totality of whose existence is split in two main ways: there is a rent in his relationship with his world, and there is a rent in his relationship with himself." In that sense, the movie did a good job of portraying what schizophrenia would actually be like. The performances by Crowe and Connelly are believeable and intense, and Ed Harris in his supporting role does his usual great job as one of Nash's imaginary characters. The guy who played Nash's imaginary college friend is also good (unfortunately I don't know the actor's name). Nash's struggle with his illness and his eventual recovery and return to work at Princeton, and ultimately, his awarding of the Nobel Prize, make for an absorbing and touching story, sort of like a "Horatio Alger," or perhaps, "Rocky of the psycho wards" story. The last time I saw this good a movie about mental illness was the Robin Williams film "Awakenings," and going way back, "I Never Promised You a Rose Garden." This one might top them all, and I agree with many other people that Crowe and Connelly are probably deserving of Academy awards for their performances. All in all, a great movie and I'm glad the producer and director had the nerve to do something different from the usual Hollywood fare.
Rating:
Summary: Best movie
Review: Great movie and Russel Crowe was outstanding. He made the movie...without him the movie wouldn't have been as good as it was.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Movie
Review: The film A Beautiful Mind was wonderful. One of the best movies ever made.Russell Crowe gave the best performance of his career to date, and the supporting cast was amazing.
Ron Howard brilliantly directed the picture, and was able to bring audiences as close as possible to understanding schizophrenia by making the alluisions John Nash suffered from visible to us. This makes it possible to truly comprehend to a greater degree what he had to live with.
I strongly recommend this film to everyone. It is a must see movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Mind
Review: I'm sorry, but this movie just ... some serious eggs! I mean, it just went on and on, and by the end I was praying for someone to dig my eyes out with a carrot pealer just for a little entertainment. Russel Crowe was too bullish for this role. It was kind of like hiring a football player to act as a meek, mentally disabled person. And then there was Jennifer Connely, the human Barbie doll, practically perfect in every way. She was really dull to watch for almost three hours. The basic plot line wandered a lot. They could have edited about an hour out of the movie. Oh well. Its a hard knock life.
Rating:
Summary: A BEAUTIFUL PERFORMANCE
Review: I am a huge fan of Russell Crowe; I guess I'm biased. But thousands upon thousands of positive reviews can't be wrong, can they?? Crowe's performance as Nash is flawless. He should've won the Academy Award. I mean Denzel was good. No, I take that back.... Superbe is more like it. But Russell's performance as John Nash was just better. This movie actually has something to say. Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, and Christopher Plummer also turn in noteworthy performances. Regardless of what the Academy voters feel, A Beautiful Mind is a terrific movie that everyone should see. It only goes to show just how diverse of an actor Russell Crowe is and how great a future he has before him. He's off to a great "start"!!!
Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful phony
Review: Most of us have by now been made aware of the liberties that "A Beautiful Mind"
takes with the truth (I would call them artistic liberties if the results were actually
artistic), but those of you who haven't are advised to stop reading here. You're much
better off processing Ron Howard's slick tearjerker in a state of unbiased ignorance --
prepackaged uplift tends to work best when you're unaware of the tinkering. But in light of the hyperbolic swill that DreamWorks (fully Miramax's equal in terms
of dishonest marketing) has decided to stamp on its recent print ads -- "There Are Some
Films In Our Lives That Change the Way We Look at the World" -- you may leave "A
Beautiful Mind" wondering what all the fuss is about. The way you look at the world will
likely remain unchanged, although the level of cynicism with which you regard
mainstream Hollywood most certainly will not. "A Beautiful Mind" may or may not be the story of John Forbes Nash, Jr., a brilliant mathematician and game theorist who won the Nobel Prize after a long, difficult struggle
with schizophrenia. From the beginning, the prodigious Nash is an eccentric, even
reclusive personality, and so it's appropriate that he's played by Russell Crowe, himself
no stranger to ingenuity or surliness. But the real star here is the radiant Jennifer
Connelly as Nash's long-suffering wife, Alicia; she's easily the most beautiful thing in "A
Beautiful Mind," not to mention the only one who shows even a modicum of restraint. Much has been made of Crowe's Academy Award-nominated work, but I'm here to
proclaim that that performance is, as Nash himself might have said, a gross
miscalculation. Crowe's acting is equal parts physical and intellectual -- he nails every
limp, flinch and mannerism; he delivers every line with a stare that manages to be at once
rapt and glazed-over; he does everything, in fact, but convince you that there's an actual
person underneath all that twitching. The film's inability to make you connect with this blank cipher is certainly not from
want of trying -- indeed, screenwriter Akiva Goldsman has swept so much ugly reality
under the carpet that Nash couldn't be more likable if he walked through the entire movie
holding a giant heart-shaped lollipop. But by pre-exorcising Nash's personal demons,
Howard has essentially ignored the fact that demons, not teary-eyed, pseudo-inspirational
speeches and sappily affirmative dialogue, are what render a human life capable of
redemption to begin with. "A Beautiful Mind" is not without its accidental virtues, but the holes in the story are
apparent even with an untainted viewing. After the midway revelation of Nash's
condition (which is handled, I'll admit, with spectacular cleverness), the film loses steam
rapidly, and the third act has a languorous, irritatingly meandering rhythm -- you can just
see Howard and Goldsman scrambling to find fresh obstacles for Nash to overcome, so
long as the obstacles don't include divorce, bisexuality or anti-Semitism. By the time
Crowe is old and wizened enough to deliver a mealy-mouthed (not to mention completely
fabricated) acceptance speech about the importance of love, the film seems to be
humoring rather than saluting him -- what adversity, exactly, has been overcome here?
The challenge of squeezing a complicated and troubled existence into a polished
mental-illness-of-the-week melodrama? Knowing and publicizing the truth about what Howard and Goldsman have
obliterated from Nash's story doesn't stir up problems with the film; it explains them. It
cuts straight to the center of this callous project, penetrating the shellacked-on layers of
phoniness, exposing the intentions of filmmakers who want to take one of America's
more distinctive success stories and turn it into a generic, traditional one. Certainly it is a dramatist's prerogative (and necessity) to fictionalize reality, and there's
no denying the difficulty of fashioning an entertaining two-hour biopic while retaining
one's integrity, but for Pete's sake, Opie, you could have at least tried. Goldsman's
screenplay, after dragging us through its revisionist fantasy under the pretense of having
an enlightening destination, finally boils down to "a beautiful mind is less important than
a beautiful heart" -- and as a message, it's as loathsome and hypocritical as it is
characteristically dopey. "A Beautiful Mind," you see, has no heart, beautiful or
otherwise. And the more you think about it, the uglier it becomes.
Rating:
Summary: The Best movie of the Year???
Review: One can easily argue that this is the best movie of the year! The writing, casting, directing and acting are stellar! Crowe is amazing!!! I can not say enough about this film. This is a definite DVD purchase!
Rating:
Summary: Firts Class movie
Review: Everything about this movie is First Class. The writing, acting, camera work are all first class!...
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic Bio-Pic!
Review: Russell Crowe plays an amazing mathematician called Dr. Nash in this moving,interesting and absorbing movie that takes us from the years after World War 2 right through to the mid 90's.Dr. John Nash is a brilliant mind in his own particluar field and at first what appears to be someone who has difficulty in social situations soon transforms itself into a man who has been suffering from schizophrenia.I have to say that Crowe is just amazing in the part.I mean it's even better than his oscar winning role in Gladiator-and it is so hard to describe in words how good a performance this is. He is ably supported by Jennifer Connelly who certainly deserves her oscar for playing his long suffering yet very supportive wife as Crowe's condition gradually worsens. The whole thurst of the movie is played off during the paranoia of the early years of the cold war. This is a nice contrast to the delusions that Crowe himself suffers. Here he meets imaginary friends and allies or are they enemies(Ed Harris who plays a secret goverment agent).The pain and suffering endured by the Nash's is well played out-but it is never dealt with in sensational over dramatisation.This gives the whole film a great sense of realism and helps you to empathise even more with Nash and his wife.It's quite an emotional film with plenty of very sad moments,but there are also some really humerous moments to-not least being Dr. Nash and the way he tries to 'chat up' various women in his own unique and straight to the point style.Even though it has got some pretty sad moments there is always this sense of hope as Nash struggles to overcome adversity in his own particular way.So in the end all the characters display moments of true warmth that will leave their memory etched in the minds of the viewer for a long time.This film is a triumph for the human spirit which is acted out brilliantly-rarely have I found the subject of mathematical theories so interesting.But even rarer still is a bio-pic of such rich quality!
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