A Beautiful Mind

Review by Bonnie Brody for A Beautiful Mind
Rating:
As I usually try to do, I read the book prior to seeing the movie. The book was much clearer than the movie but I thought the movie was very well done.

The movie is about the Nobel Prize winner in economics, John Nash. It stars Jennifer Connelly and Russell Crowe, John Nash is a Princeton student when he develps Schizophrenia. The movie is very accurate in its portrayal of delusions and hallucinations, though it was sometimes confusing – especially the part about whether his roommate really exists.

Both Crowe and Connelly do excellent jobs. The movie goes light on Nash’s bi-sexuality, does not go into his having a deadbeat dad, and ignores his relationship with Eleanor Stier. Other than these things, it is pretty true to the book.

Nash does have a beautiful mind. Once he starts losing his mind due to the tragedy of schizophrenia, it is heartwarming to see that he maintains the respect of his Princeton colleagues and students. I applaud this movie for raising peoples’ consciousness about schizophrenia.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys drama and is interested in mental illness and resilience.

Review by Jerry Rodriguez for A Beautiful Mind
Rating:
A Beautiful Mind is one of those rare movies that grace the silver screen once in a lifetime and touch our hearts and our minds in ways that other films which have attempted to replicate with similar material, have yet to achieve. For years movie goers have witnessed the world of mental illness and its horrors from an outside perspective, much like visitors to a zoo, observing life in captivity from the other side of the cage. With faithful attention to detail and a respectful compassion for a world not yet understood in its unending complexities director Ron Howard draws the audience into a world of mystery, deception and intrigue, far removing us from our comfort zones. Then, as suddenly as it all began, the rug is ripped out from under our feet, forcing us to accept the fact that a world into which we have been drawn is not always a world that others can see.

This is the basic technique of filmmaking which Ron Howard skillfully exploits throughout the film to powerfully illustrate the emotional and psychological impact of John F. Nash’s schizophrenia, a mental illness that is often characterized by disturbing delusions, hallucinations and bizarre thought patterns. As one who has suffered from mental illness for nearly thirty years I personally recommend this film not merely for its intellectual and artistic delivery of the subject matter but primarily for its overall sensitivity to an issue that has remained a subject of personal controversy in many circles of conversation, even in a century revolutionized by constant scientific discoveries and the evolutionary restructuring of psychiatric treatment.