Review of A Beautiful Mind (2001) by Cameron J — 19 Jun 2011

Beautiful mind... I can't breathe! I got a disease! Matchbox Twenty reference, anyone? A fall-flat, awkward opening joke? Either I'm going crazy too or my creative juices have taken a blow because of how effective the psychological impact is. Of course, the concept alone isn't going to deliver a hard enough psychological blow. Credit goes out to Ron Howard and Russell Crowe, but more on them later.

As good as the film is, it does suffer from a moderate lack of immediate development and a bit of a bumpy transition from the lengthy development segment. In spite of these small complaints, the film still features good dialogue, fine visual effects, very good make-up when aging comes into play, charming character chemistry and boasts a compelling story, strong characters, an exhilarating score, a solid twist, fantastic acting and very effective emotional and psychological impact. But what makes the impacts of this film so effective? Why, it's director Ron Howard, who once again brings his trademark grittiness to the film, which works to great effect when he brilliantly transports us into Crowe's character John Nash's situation and has us feeling his struggles - certainly not to an authentic extent - but still genuinely enough for us to feel his pain. Man, Ron could have us feel the pain of a mental patient and now he can't even make "The Da Vinci Code" complex. Maybe he's slipping into madness too. Did you really think I was going to review a great Ron Howard movie without complaining about one of his very few bad movies that he did years later?

But seriously though, as fantastic as Howard's direction is, he still can't pull off the film's emotional influence alone. Equal, if not more credit goes to leading man Russell Crowe for being the key ingredient to the film's immerseiveness. Crowe's smaller accomplishments in the performance - such as a likeable charisma and solid accent and mannerism changes - are impressive. His much grander accomplishments of emoting and giving off the genuine atmosphere of his character in order to complete Howard's emotional and psychological influence is downright beyond awe-inspiring. Really, I don't exactly know how to break down Crowe's - dare I say it - masterful performance. Perhaps the best word to fully convey the quality of Crowe's performance in this film is "transformation". He dives as deeply as ever into his role and masterfully transforms into his character, with the only evidence of his being, well, Russell Crowe being his distincitve appearance, voice and name for the book of acting legends in the credits.

Ultimately, "A Beautiful Mind", led by Ron Howard's incredible direction and Russell Crowe's show-stoppingly masterful performance - oh, I mean transformation, stands ever-so tall as a powerful and deeply moving retelling of the great John Nash's brilliance and struggles, as well as a fascinating study on the complexities of the human mind.