A Beautiful Mind (2001)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 186
Fresh: 144 | Rotten: 42
The well-acted A Beautiful Mind is both a moving love story and a revealing look at mental illness.
Average Rating: 7/10
Critic Reviews: 43
Fresh: 32 | Rotten: 11
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: 485,062
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
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Cast
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Russell Crowe
John Forbes Nash Jr. -
Jennifer Connelly
Alicia Nash -
Ed Harris
William Parcher -
Paul Bettany
Charles Herman -
Adam Goldberg
Sol -
Judd Hirsch
Helinger -
Josh Lucas
Hansen -
Anthony Rapp
Bender -
Christopher Plummer
Dr. Rosen -
Austin Pendleton
Thomas King -
Jason Gray-Stanford
Ainsley -
Vivien Cardone
Marcee
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All Critics (187) | Top Critics (43) | Fresh (144) | Rotten (42) | DVD (43)
It isn't the device that's so crude, but the execution, which turns Nash's persecutory demons into nuisances that won't leave us alone.
Crowe pulls out the stops, but he looks too bullish and controlled for such a pitiable victim.
The result is mainstream moviemaking at its highest, most satisfying level.
Consistently engrossing as an unusual character study and as a trip to the mysterious border-crossing between rarified brilliance and madness.
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.
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.
Top CriticRussell Crowe is a sensational actor who can apparently do anything he sets his own beautiful mind to, and he brilliantly portrays Nash from college days to retirement age.
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.
Oscar-winning biopic is too intense for tweens.
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.
A masterpiece.
A typical Oscars movie. Solid, middle-brow and worthy.
I can't deny how solidly it's crafted, how well-acted, and, wonder of wonders, how intelligently written and directed.
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.
Unfortunately, as the picture goes on, the haunting of Nash by figments of his troubled mind becomes a trifle simplistic.
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.
If this were fiction, it would be an example of superior storytelling, and it's certainly gripping.
A pedestrian film with a rudimentary script that forces the actors to create believability where there might otherwise be none.
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.
In every facet, it should have an automatic date with Oscar.
Audience Reviews for A Beautiful Mind
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Movies Like A Beautiful Mind
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- John Forbes Nash Jr.: The implant... I can't find it... It's gone....
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- Charles Herman: The prodigonal roommate has arrived...
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- John Forbes Nash Jr.: Who decides reason?
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- John Forbes Nash Jr.: What truly is logic?
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- John Forbes Nash Jr.: Classes will dull your mind, destroy the potential for authentic creativity.
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- John Forbes Nash Jr.: Find a truly original idea. It is the only way I will ever distinguish myself. It is the only way I will ever matter.
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Foreign Titles
- Una mente brillante (ES)
