Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Mind; It'll Blow your Mind!
Review: "A Beautiful Mind," based on true events, is a gripping, heartwarming tale filled with suspense and love. A WV genius, John Nash, tries to prove his revolutionary theory on governing dynamics, while his mind takes a dark turn. He struggles to keep in touch with reality while battling schizophrenia. His loyal wife Alicia is what ultimatley keeps him grounded to reality and sanity. This is an academy award winner for sure!!"He saw a world in a way no one could ever imagine..." Its a beautiful story, a beautiful mystery, a beautiful movie!
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful Mind shines
Review: Russell Crowe has done it again with another virtuoso acting performance as genius mathematician John Nash, a victim of schizophrenia. This movie is very reminiscent of an earlier film, Shine, about a gifted, but mentally ill pianist who overcomes tremendous obstacles to make a comeback on the concert circuit. I did feel the ending to this film was a little over the top in its sentimentality. And who persuaded director, Ron Howard, to "age" Jennifer Connolly with what has to be one of the worst and phoniest make-up jobs in history! Aside from that, this movie must be seen just to appreciate Crowe's amazing performance.
Rating:
Summary: Expect to hear a lot about this film during the Oscars
Review: Definitely the best film I have seen in the past year. It will change you. This is the true story of a brilliant mathematician, Dr. John Nash, who distinguished himself before he was 30 as an incredible mathematical theorist who disproves a postulate that has been followed and taught for over 150 years when Nash comes along. Math in itself may not intrigue you, but the movie will. The story is delivered in a way that the most inept in mathematics can follow. After receiving his PhD, he becomes a professor and he works at MIT Wheeler Labs, helping the U.S. government with code problems during the Cold War. Everyone knows him to be a bit odd and eccentric and no one, not even himself, realizes he has been battling schizophrenia for years. I suspect that Paul Bettany may receive a nomination for best supporting actor as the college roommate that helps to socialize Nash (Russell Crowe) and pull him out of his reclusive shell so that he could meet the love of his life, Alicia, magnificently portrayed by Jennifer Connelley. Jennifer Connelley has proved herself over and over again in previous films... hopefully this year the Academy will remember her and give her the nomination she deserves. She is fantastic in this movie. Needless to say, Crowe's performance is definitely deserving of a Best Actor nomination. The acting in this film is so real, you forget you're watching a movie. The movie takes the viewer on an exciting ride that will have moments of humor and heartbreak. There are many times throughout the film that you can not tell if you are seeing a hallucination or the real thing and you will be put in the shoes of John Nash for a brief time... is it real, or is it in your head? The film's score is also worthy of recognition. "A Beautiful Mind" is a beautiful film. The characters are real and moving and the experience of seeing the film may change the way you perceive those with mental illness... and it will definitely stir the heart of anyone who does not have a heart made of cement. Fabulous. This is another one that will go into my DVD collection when it becomes available.
Rating:
Summary: A Beautiful Actor
Review: I've seen this film twice, the second time, taking my elderly mother since she is a big Russell Crowe fan. It was really a pleasure to watch her face as she watched Russell's riveting performance and then see her cry, when "John Nash" received his pens. She was truly moved and of course, so was I. I then came home and "Gladiator" was on HBO, and I sat there, nearly stunned, watching this very same man play an entirely different kind of role and realized what a true chameleon and utterly brilliant film presence Russell is. His ability to encompass a character to the point where he seems to change his skin and color, like the chameleon, is truly amazing. And I challenge anyone who sees this film to not believe they are looking at Russell at age 70. I have NEVER seen an actor age beyone his years more convincingly. (Did anyone think he looked just like another brilliant actor, the late Jason Robards?) I've read a lot of critiques on this film and some have said it oversimplifies or somehow makes light of the illness. I challenge that and say this: when a film works, it works at the level of simplicity, it works when the story is told in the simplest way to achieve the inner truth of its characters and this film does this in spades. The visual way in which Ron Howard and of course, Russell, show us Nash's delusions and paranoia is at its simplest, and therefore we connect and understand. What can be better than that? I also could see so clearly how love can keep a man alive, and Jennifer Connelly was also amazing in this movie. There are also little cinematic touches (e.g., lights) that continue to show us Nash's mind. I say, bravo, Ron Howard. See this film, then watch "Gladiator" and tell me you are not amazed (or, at the very least, "not entertained?"). If there is any doubt as to Russell Crowe's ENORMOUS talent after seeing this film, I say "what exactly are YOU watching?"
Rating:
Summary: Well-crafted film only loosely based on the true story
Review: If you want to be entertained, moved, and possibly inspired, "A Beautiful Mind" may do the trick - it is well-crafted, with superb, understated acting from its stars despite occasionally schmaltzy moments in the script. But if you want to learn about Nash the Nobel-winning mathematician, read the biography of the same title by Sylvia Nasar. I really enjoyed this movie in the theatre. Unfortunately, when I read Nash's biography, I realized just how much had been sacrificed to create this tale of one man's triumph over madness. Nash's bisexuality, his earlier relationship and illegitimate son, his years of estrangement from Alicia, the combination of paranoid and megalomaniacal delusions that characterized the full-blown stages of his illness and the solid work he accomplished during treatment... all had been swept under the rug. Leaving them out made Crowe's Nash a simpler, more sympathetic hero, but in my opinion does a disservice to the equally humorous, tragic, and heroic story of the real Nash's life.
Rating:
Summary: One of the Years Best
Review: This is one of the best movies I have seen this year. A great performance by both the leading man and woman. A great storty with both action and drama, no needless violence or sex. An adult movie, good direction and great story telling. So many movies seem to be just a showcase for special effects, but forget the story is the thing that makes a movie, without a great story all else is lost. A must see.
Rating: 
Summary: A Beautiful Mind, but.....
Review: Perhaps not such a great picture. This is perhaps the dullest movie I've seen since Random Hearts. The story (about a brilliant mathematician who faces his own inner demons) has potential, but director Ron Howard fails to capture much of the spark of earlier films. There is little of the emotional warmth of Apollo 13 in A Beautiful Mind; were it not for the talents of the brilliant (and admittedly beautiful) Russell Crowe, this would not BE a movie. Crowe manages to carry it off, but the film fails to make an emotional connection with the viewer. Especially disappointing was the performance of the actress who plays John Nash's wife. She plays her role with too much stoicism: several times one can see Nash reaching out to her, trying to establish an emotional connection, but it never quite makes it. All in all, this is one film that proves that even a great actor can't make a film great.
Rating:
Summary: I want to see this one again!
Review: The movie cinematography, casting and story line were wonderful. Quite interesting. I walked away feeling sympathy for all with mental illness.
Rating:
Summary: Formulaic
Review: Ron Howard took a story with great potential and turned it into a sentimentally formulaic film that the stodgy Academy will most certainly adore. Too much time is spent leading up to Nash's breakdown. Howard rushes us through 30 years of Nash's life in 30 minutes time. The drama and true depth of this story can be found in Nash's lifetime attempt to manage his disease, and not simply in the events that lead up to his hospitalization and relatively brief treatment period.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful example of an important issue
Review: My favorite thing about this film, next to excellent directing (yet again) by Ron Howard and another camillion role by Russell Crowe, is the way it so beautifully illustrates an important issue. We all have things that we have to "deal" with inside ourselves - some more blatant than others. And each day we have to choose how we are going to deal with that thing today - it never goes away. For some of us, it is an addiction that we are dealing with. For others, it may be a behavioral pattern that we have developed. Every time a temptation or a situation arises to test that particular thing, we have to decide how we are going to deal with that. Nash, the character that Crowe plays, has to deal with such a problem. And in this film we get to see how he chooses to deal with it - each and every day. Many of us like to think that these issues will just go away. But what most of us find, is that they do not go away and we have to choose over and over again how we are going to deal with our issues.
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