Movie Review - "A Beautiful Mind" 01/04/02

This is a movie review for the movie "A Beautiful Mind", released January 4, 2002.

I watched this on VHS tape.





Trailer:

Cast:
Russell Crowe  ("Gladiator" (2000) Maximus, "Cinderella Man" (2005) Jim Braddock)     -   John Nash
Ed Harris     ("The Abyss" (1989) Virgil 'Bud' Brigman, "Apollo 13" (1995) Gene Kranz)  -    Parcher
Jennifer Connelly ("Requiem for a Dream" (2000) Marion Silver, "Hulk" (2003) Betty Ross)    -    Alicia Nash
Paul Bettany ("Iron Man" (2008) Jarvis (voice), "A Knight's Tale" (2001) Geoffrey Chaucer)   -   Charles







Plot:

A southern man goes to Princeton to prove that he is a wonderful and brilliant mathematician. He comes up with a theory which changes his whole field and tries to continue his life, being brilliant and trying to be social, but comes across a problem. (The trailer does injustice to the problem, so spoilers.) The problem is schizophrenia. How can he deal with being social when he doesn't know who is real or who isn't? How can the one thing that makes a man (his mind) backfire on him and how does he recapture his life and his mind to be sane?






Criteria:
0/5 – No value whatsoever. Absolute waste of time.
1/5 – Barely worth any time.
2/5 – Pathetic but has a bit of something to hold the attention a little.
3/5 – Somewhat kept the attention but could definitely have used more.
4/5 – Good, but not awe-strikingly amazing. Could have maybe used a bit more to the movie.
5/5 – Go see it! Wonderful movie all around – characters, music, theme, storyline, etc.


5/5 - Based on a TRUE story about the Nobel Peace Prize winner Professor Nash, this is an amazing story. There are so many things that you have to deal with in life and they don't necessarily have to be outside of yourself. There are physical illnesses and mental illnesses. Though physical illnesses can be quantitfied and mental ones cannot, that doesn't make mental illnesses less real. People need to face the true and realize that yes, schizophrenia and similar illnesses are out there and are real. Just because someone doesn't show physical signs of illness doesn't mean they aren't fighting it. Don't judge a person by their outward appearance because they could be a stronger person than you are for the depression, suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and other stressors that they have had to fight to get to where they are.

This is a very good movie and I really suggest it, even if it were a regular movie not based on a real story. You should watch this, especially if you don't understand mental illnesses.