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A Beautiful Mind (2001)

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Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 183
Fresh: 143 | Rotten: 40

The well-acted A Beautiful Mind is both a moving love story and a revealing look at mental illness.

Average Rating: 7.2/10
Critic Reviews: 37
Fresh: 30 | Rotten: 7

The well-acted A Beautiful Mind is both a moving love story and a revealing look at mental illness.

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Average Rating: 3.9/5
User Ratings: 449,059

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Movie Info

The true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of this biographical drama from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant and conceited professor Nash. The prof seems guaranteed a rosy future in the early '50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and makes a remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game theory," which carries him to the brink of international acclaim. Soon after, John is visited by Agent

PG-13, 2 hr. 14 min.

Drama

Directed By: Ron Howard

Written By: Akiva Goldsman

In Theaters: Dec 21, 2001 Wide

On DVD: Jun 25, 2002

Box Office:$170.7M

Universal Pictures

Consistently engrossing as an unusual character study and as a trip to the mysterious border-crossing between rarified brilliance and madness.

January 28, 2008 Full Review Source: Variety

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Todd McCarthy

Variety

Top Critic

Director Ron Howard's deftness in suggesting the subjective experience of Crowe's character, who's later diagnosed with schizophrenia, makes for inspirational narrative, but certain plot points are so reductive.

February 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

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Lisa Alspector

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

A light veneer of condescension hangs over A Beautiful Mind.

January 22, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Magazine

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Peter Rainer

New York Magazine

Top Critic

It makes you understand what it feels like to have a serious breakdown in powerful, empathetic ways that no movie has ever done before.

January 6, 2002 Comment

Stephen Hunter

Washington Post

Top Critic

Nash's subterranean nightmare takes on the gripping elements of a psychological thriller.

January 3, 2002 Full Review Source: New York Observer

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Rex Reed

New York Observer

Top Critic

You can't believe Russell Crowe is the same actor who won an Oscar one year ago for Gladiator. The film has a reveal so startling I almost got whiplash, shaking my head in amazement.

December 27, 2001 Comment

Joel Siegel

ABCNEWS.COM

Top Critic

Cynics will hate it, but others will rightfully see it as a great cinematic accomplishment which is backed by excellent performances, great direction, a moving score and exquisite cinematography.

January 5, 2012 Full Review Source: Matt's Movie Reviews

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Matthew Pejkovic

Matt's Movie Reviews

Oscar-winning biopic is too intense for tweens.

September 30, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media

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Nell Minow

Common Sense Media

Crowe, Goldsman and Howard aren't trying to solicit love or tears for John Nash, as detractors bitterly claimed. "A Beautiful Mind" sought only acknowledgement of the silent, invisible and brave struggle that so many with mental illnesses endure each day.

September 25, 2010 Full Review Source: Suite101.com

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Nick Rogers

Suite101.com

A masterpiece.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed

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Felix Vasquez Jr.

Cinema Crazed

A typical Oscars movie. Solid, middle-brow and worthy.

February 20, 2008 Full Review Source: Film4

| Comment

Film4

I can't deny how solidly it's crafted, how well-acted, and, wonder of wonders, how intelligently written and directed.

July 23, 2007 Full Review Source: eFilmCritic.com

| Comment

Rob Gonsalves

eFilmCritic.com

I particularly enjoyed the fact that Nash comes across as quite fallible in the film despite his attempts at perfection. His character in the film is as unpredictable as I would expect the real Nash to be.

July 14, 2007 Full Review Source: Big Picture Big Sound

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Joe Lozito

Big Picture Big Sound

Unfortunately, as the picture goes on, the haunting of Nash by figments of his troubled mind becomes a trifle simplistic.

February 6, 2007 Full Review Source: Guardian [UK]

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Philip French

Guardian [UK]

Despite serious omissions from Nash's real-life (homosexuality, anti-Semitism), Ron Howard's middlebrow treament of the subject makes for an enjoybale film largely due to the compelling performances of Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly.

January 26, 2007 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com Source: EmanuelLevy.Com

If this were fiction, it would be an example of superior storytelling, and it's certainly gripping.

December 30, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine

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Adam Smith

Empire Magazine

A pedestrian film with a rudimentary script that forces the actors to create believability where there might otherwise be none.

December 27, 2006 Comments (3)

Wesley Lovell

Oscar Guy

At its most effective when it seems to lose the plot in a scrambled second act that posits the Cold War as a collective paranoid delusion, the film reverts to type (and to fact) for a sentimental anti-climax.

January 26, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out

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Time Out

It presents itself as a biography of the flesh-and-blood John Nash. And in fact, it is really only a flashy, sentimental Hollywood movie, inspired by a few particular details of the John Nash story.

December 6, 2004 Full Review Source: Looking Closer

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Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

Crowe delivers the best performance of his career

August 14, 2004 Comment (1)

James Plath

Reel.com

In every facet, it should have an automatic date with Oscar.

August 13, 2004 Full Review Source: Oregon Herald

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Mark Sells

Oregon Herald Source: Oregon Herald

Crowe...disappears into the character just as he did when he played tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider.

June 25, 2004 Full Review Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

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Judith Egerton

Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY) Source: Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)

A tedious exercise in manipulation that once again proves Hollywood is short of vision.

February 1, 2004 Full Review Source: FilmStew.com

| Comment

Charlie Brown

FilmStew.com Source: FilmStew.com

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for A Beautiful Mind

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Gripping, profound and beautiful. Gut wrenching sense of humanity.

July 23, 2011

Adriel Lim

Super Reviewer

A moving, smart, happy, mysterious, and incredible film. John Nash (Russell Crowe) is a Princeton genius but has yet to prove it, he makes a good friend there (Paul Bettany) whp believes in him, and soon earns a place in the Pentagon and as a teacher at a university. He falls in love with a beautiful woman (Alicia

February 27, 2011

Brad Wright

Super Reviewer

A Beautiful Mind Quotes

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1. John Forbes Nash Jr.: I don't believe in luck, but I do believe in assigning value to things.
– Submitted by Raj G (5 days ago)
1. Dr. Rosen: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?
– Submitted by Alejandro O (2 months ago)
1. John Forbes Nash Jr.: You are all my reasons.
– Submitted by Tomas K (3 months ago)
1. John Forbes Nash Jr.: I'm an acquired taste, Martin.
– Submitted by Tomas K (3 months ago)
1. Alicia Nash: I need to believe that something extraordinary is possible.
– Submitted by Tomas K (3 months ago)