Days Of Future Past

Example of things one can do with a bit of time on hand - Movie Review

Director Ron Howard’s “A Beautiful Mind” is the story of real life Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr., a brilliant mathematician who is also a victim of paranoid schizophrenia. John Nash’s uncanny ability to see unseeable patterns and his penchant for seeking original ideas led to the formulation of his economic theories, which won him the Nobel Prize. Today, John Nash still teaches in Princeton and walks around the grounds of the campus.

“A Beautiful Mind” stars Russell Crowe, who turns in a masterful performance with his portrayal of John Nash. Jennifer Connelly stars just as outstandingly, as his wife Alicia, one who certainly adds complements with her beauty. Paul Bettany plays Nash’s ‘imaginary friend’ from his early days in Princeton, while Ed Harris’s role as William Parcher the Federal Agent, is literally a visual representation of Nash’s schizophrenic personality at its ‘best’.

Considered a social misfit by his peers during his early days in Princeton, Nash however soon manages to impress with his unsurpassed genius. A night out at a bar with his fellow scholars set the brilliant mind of his into action. One might see where the fiction of this story lies. I thought Princeton scholars would have much preferred the ‘buzz’ they get from reading tons of books for leisure rather than from the booze and from flirting. Nash immediately got to work from his inspiration. When he presented his theories to his tutor, “Did you realise that this flies in the face of 150 years of Economic theories…” and “Well Mr. Nash, with a breakthrough of this magnitude, I’m confident you will get any place that you like…” was the reply he received.

John Nash’s brilliance with codes and patterns earned him a job at cracking codes in the Pentagon. Yet for all his intellectual abilities, he becomes a prisoner to his own mind. Nash’s encounter with William Parcher, the Federal Agent, and the many sequences that follows, eventually leads him towards a downward spiral into bouts of hallucinations. Parcher is nothing but Nash’s own mind projection, paranoid schizophrenia optimised. Yet, if Nash possesses a ‘beautiful mind’, Alicia, who became his wife, possesses beauty in many other ways. She loves her husband for who he is. John Nash recovered well enough to eventually return to teaching in Princeton.

Director Ron Howard is able to give the audience a success story, triumph against all odds, Hollywood style kind of movie. He manages to present John Nash as a strong-willed character, yet masterfully maneuvers and blends in the mental anguish he suffers. “A Beautiful Mind” is director Ron Howard’s best movie to date. He together with Russell Crowe’s and Jennifer Connelly’s powerful performances, truly deserve their awards. Only one word describes this movie, ‘Beautiful’.

posted by HanQiang @ 12:48 am