Movie Review : A Beautiful Mind

Starring: Russel Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer

          Which is the nicest part in a beautiful film? I think it is THE END -- where when the screen is clouded with darkness and the names of the behind the screen people starts to appear, we feel content and happy; happy to be lived long enough to see this wonderful artistic creation too. The urge to clap comes without compulsion and something is changed within.

          I always had much awe for the Nobel Prize winners, though a disappointment always lingers. Why are they all so old? It seems great inventions come with great experience which needs an infinite time. 'A Beautiful Mind' is the story of one such great genius, John Nash, a mathematician.

          The story begins when, John Nash, the mysterious West Virginian genius joins Princeton University. He is shy, awkward and most of his classmates consider him a psycho -- needless to say, he has no friends except Charles Herman, his roommate who is the witty element in this earlier scenes.

          He won't attend classes, says it dulls the innovative spirit and after much struggle comes his breakthrough project. This earns him a position in Wheeler Labs, his dream. After some years he is recruited as a code breaker by William Parcher of the Defence. Surprisingly enough he meets with his soul mate Alicia and marries her.

          Everything goes rather well until he is attacked by the Russians on the deposit point. Parcher comes at the nick of time and kills the attackers, but from then on John is terrified and is full of suspicions. He is admitted to a mental hospital and is found to have schizophrenia.

         Along with Alicia, the spectators are also shocked to learn that Charles, his niece and Parcher are delusions, a trick of Nash's abnormal mind. He has to undergo shock treatment for three months and must continuously take medicine.
          This weakens him and when he stops the medicine secretly, it begins all over again. But this time realisation dawns as he sees that the niece hasn't aged a bit. With Alicia's support, he begins to control it without medicines. His former friend, Martin Hansen, who runs the Maths department at Princeton now, allows him to roam around the familiar surroundings of the college.

         After about twenty years, he learns to ignore the imaginary persons though they are still there. He is now teaching at Princeton and the greatest tribute comes in 1994 through Nobel Prize. A must watch film for sure though it somewhat distorts Nash's life.

--- movie is inspired by a best-selling, Pulitzer Prize nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar.
--- nominated for eight Oscars and bagged four.