Cast: {Russell Crowe (John Forbes Nash, Jr.), Jennifer Connelly (Alicia Nash), Ed Harris
(William Parcher), Paul Bettany (Charles Herm), Adam Goldberg (Sol)}
· A Beautiful Mind is a story based on the life of the famous mathematician John Forbes Nash. His contributions to mathematics are outstanding. When he was an undergraduate, he proved Brouwer's fixed point theorem. He then broke one of Riemann's most perplexing mathematical problems and became famous for the Nash Solution. Game Theory From then on, Nash provided breakthrough after breakthrough in mathematics. In 1958 John Forbes Nash was described as being 'the most promising young mathematician in the world'. John solved problems in mathematics that many mathematicians deemed not solvable. On the threshold of such a promising and outstanding career, he then went on to suffer through three decades of a devastating form of paranoid schizophrenia. He lost his teaching professions and his job. He refused all medical treatment and spent years in and out of dilusional states. Remarkably, in 1994 John won the Nobel Prize in Economic Science for his work on Game Theory, (Game theory is an analytical tool(s) to guide us to understand the phenomena behind the way decision-makers interact e.g., voting, elections, dating), he was only 21 when he wrote his paper. In 1999 he was awarded the Leroy P Steele Prize by the American Mathematical Society. Did this fascinating mathematician slowly analyze, apply logic and reason his way back to a semblance of sanity and reality?
· A Beautiful Mind opens with John Nash in graduate school at Princeton. He is almost obsessed to be recognized for original work and begins writing his formulas on windows and napkins while slapping his colleagues with many insulting, yet witty comments. Nash's work on Game Theory in the early stages has Nash comparing it to football, pigeon feeding habits and picking up women. It's the bar scene where Nash has his big 'Ah Ha' moment. While Nash and his friends all have their eyes on the same Blonde woman, you begin to sense his 'genius moment'. He surprises his colleagues with the question that if we all want the same woman, nobody wins, if we all go after her friends, nobody wins, thus there must be a solution to ensure that everyone wins. With that, Nash writes a formula on a napkin, rushes out of the bar and works feverishly on his new theory.
· The first portion of A Beautiful Mind focuses extensively on Nash's mathematical life. As the movie progresses, we see the devastating impact that the paranoid schizophrenia has on this brilliant mathematician. Nash believes that he's cracking code for the Pentagon, he sees bizarre and twisted messages in newspapers and magazines and invisible algorithms everywhere, the imaginary people become more and more prevalent and we see his overall descent into madness. In time; however, he learns to live with his demons and return to teaching mathematics.
· A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American film based on the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr., a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was directed by Ron Howard and written by Akiva Goldsman. It was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. The film stars Russell Crowe, along with Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris,Christopher Plummer and Paul Bettany.
· The story begins in the early years of a young schizophrenic prodigy named John Nash. Early in the movie, Nash begins developing paranoid schizophrenia and endures delusional episodes while painfully watching the loss and burden his condition brings on his wife and friends. Later, he competes in an Egg Challenge which only worsens his symptoms.
· The film opened in US cinemas on December 21, 2001. It was well-received by critics, grossed over $170 million worldwide, and went on to win four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Leading Actor, Best Editing, Best Makeup, and Best Score. The film has been criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of some aspects of Nash's life. The film fictionally portrayed his hallucinations as visual and auditory, when in fact they were exclusively auditory. Also, Nasar concluded that Nash's refusal to take drugs "may have been fortunate," since theirside effects "would have made his gentle re-entry into the world of mathematics a near impossibility"; in the screenplay, however, just before he receives the Nobel Prize, Nash speaks of taking "newer medications."
Plot
· n 1947, John Nash (Russell Crowe) arrives at Princeton University as a new graduate student. He is a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Prize for mathematics; although he was promised a single room, his roommate Charles Herman (Paul Bettany), a literature student, greets him as he moves in and soon becomes his best friend. Nash also meets a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Martin Hansen (Josh Lucas), Richard Sol (Adam Goldberg), Ainsley (Jason Gray-Stanford), and Bender (Anthony Rapp), with whom he strikes up an awkward friendship. Nash admits to Charles that he is better with numbers than he is with people.
· The mathematics department chairman of Princeton informs Nash, who has missed many of his classes, that he cannot begin work until he finishes a thesis paper, prompting him to seek a truly original idea for the paper. A woman at the bar is what ultimately inspires his fruitful work in the concept of governing dynamics, a theory in mathematical economics. After the conclusion of Nash's studies as a student at Princeton, he accepts a prestigious appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with his friends Sol and Bender.
· In 1953, while teaching a class on calculus at MIT, he places a particularly interesting problem on the chalkboard that he dares his students to solve. He is not particularly interested in teaching and his delusions even cause him to miss the class. When a student, Alicia Larde (Jennifer Connelly), comes to his office to discuss why he did not show up, she also asks him to dinner and the two fall in love and eventually marry.
· On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into his former roommate Charles and meets Charles' young niece Marcee (Vivien Cardone), whom he adores. Nash is invited to a secret Department of Defense facility in the Pentagon to crack a complex encryption of an enemy telecommunication. Nash is able to decipher the code mentally, to the astonishment of other codebreakers. Here, he encounters the mysterious William Parcher (Ed Harris), who belongs to the United States Department of Defense. Parcher observes Nash's performance from above, while partially concealed behind a screen. Parcher gives Nash a new assignment to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers, ostensibly to thwart a Soviet plot. He must write a report of his findings and place them in a specified mailbox. After being chased by Soviet agents and an exchange of gunfire, Nash becomes increasingly paranoid and begins to behave erratically.
· After observing this erratic behavior, Alicia informs a psychiatric hospital. Later, while delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash realizes that he is being watched by a hostile group of people, and although he attempts to flee, he is forcibly sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility. Nash's internment seemingly confirms his belief that the Soviets are trying to extract information from him. He views the officials of the psychiatric facility as Soviet kidnappers. At one point, he gorily tries to dig out of his arm an implant he received at an unused warehouse on the MIT campus which was supposedly used as a listening facility by the DoD.
· Alicia, desperate and obligated to help her husband, visits the mailbox and retrieves the never-opened "top secret" documents that Nash had delivered there. When confronted with this evidence, Nash is finally convinced that he has been hallucinating. The Department of Defense agent William Parcher and Nash's secret assignment to decode Soviet messages was in fact all a delusion. Even more surprisingly, Nash's "prodigal roommate" Charles and his niece Marcee are also products of his mind.
· After a series of insulin shock therapy sessions, Nash is released on the condition that he agrees to take antipsychotic medication; however, the drugs create negative side-effects that affect his sexual and emotional relationship with his wife and, most dramatically, his intellectual capacity. Frustrated, Nash secretly stops taking his medication and hoards his pills, triggering a relapse of his psychosis.
· In 1956, while bathing his infant son, Nash becomes distracted and wanders off. Alicia is hanging laundry in the backyard and observes that the back gate is open. She discovers that Nash has turned an abandoned shed in a nearby grove of trees into an office for his work for Parcher. Upon realizing what has happened, Alicia runs into the house to confront Nash and barely saves their child from drowning in the bathtub. When she confronts him, Nash claims that his friend Charles was watching their son. Alicia runs to the phone to call the psychiatric hospital for emergency assistance. Nash suddenly sees Parcher who urges him to kill his wife, but Nash angrily refuses to do such a thing. After Parcher points a gun at her, Nash lunges for him, accidentally knocking Alicia and the baby to the ground. Alicia flees the house in fear with their child, but Nash steps in front of her car to prevent her from leaving. After a moment, he tells Alicia, "She never gets old"--referring to Marcee, who, although years have passed since their first encounter, has remained exactly the same age and is still a little girl. Realizing the implications of this fact, he finally accepts that although all three people seem completely real, they are in fact part of his hallucinations.
· Caught between the intellectual paralysis of the antipsychotic drugs and his delusions, Nash and Alicia decide to try to live with his abnormal condition. Nash consciously says goodbye to the three delusional characters forever in his attempts to ignore his hallucinations and not feed "his demons". He thanks Charles for being his best friend over the years, and says a tearful goodbye to Marcee, stroking her hair and calling her "baby girl", telling them both he would not speak to them anymore. They still continue to haunt him, with Charles mocking him for cutting off their friendship, but Nash learns to ignore them.
· Nash grows older and approaches his old friend and intellectual rival, Martin Hansen, now head of the Princeton mathematics department, who grants him permission to work out of the library and audit classes. Even though Nash still suffers from hallucinations and mentions taking newer medications, he is ultimately able to live with and largely ignore his psychotic episodes. He takes his situation in stride and humorously checks to ensure that any new acquaintances are in fact real people, not hallucinations.
· Nash eventually earns the privilege of teaching again. In 1994, Nash is honored by his fellow professors for his achievement in mathematics, and goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. Nash and Alicia are about to leave the auditorium in Stockholm, when Nash sees Charles, Marcee and Parcher standing and watching him with blank expressions on their faces. Alicia asks Nash, "What is it?" Nash replies, "Nothing. Nothing at all." With that, they both leave the auditorium.
· Russell Crowe as John Forbes Nash, Jr., A mathematical genius who is obsessed with finding an original idea to ensure his legacy. There was difficulty when casting Crowe, who was well-liked by the producers, when he went to film Gladiator in a different time-zone and was difficult to reach for an extended period of time to attach him to the project.
· Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash, a later student of Nash who catches his interest. Connelly was cast after Ron Howard drew comparisons to her and Alicia Nash, both academically and in facial features.
· Paul Bettany as Charles Herman, Nash's cheerful, supportive roommate and best friend throughout graduate school. The character of Charles was not written to be British; however, director Brian Helgeland provided a tape of Bettany from A Knight's Tale. The filmmakers agreed that the character could be British, based on Bettany's performance in the film.
· Ed Harris as William Parcher, a highly dedicated and forceful government agent for the Department of Defense. He recruits Nash to help fight Soviet spies.
· Josh Lucas as Martin Hansen, Nash's friendly rival from his graduate school years at Princeton. In the end, Hansen tells Nash that nobody wins, and they are at that point to consider each other as equals.
· Adam Goldberg as Sol, a friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Bender, to work with him at MIT.
· Anthony Rapp as Bender, a friend of Nash's from Princeton University who is chosen, along with Sol, to work with him at MIT.
· Jason Gray-Stanford as Ainsley Neilson, the symbol cryptography professor. Nash pays particular attention to his tie. Divergence from actual events
§ The narrative of the film differs considerably from the actual events of Nash's life. The film has been criticized for this, but the filmmakers had consistently said that the film was not meant to be a literal representation. One difficulty was in portraying stress and mental illness within one person's mind. Sylvia Nasar stated that the filmmakers "invented a narrative that, while far from a literal telling, is true to the spirit of Nash's story". The film made his hallucinations visual and auditory when, in fact, they were exclusively auditory. Furthermore, while in real life Nash spent his years between Princeton and MIT as a consultant for the RAND Corporation in California, in the film he is portrayed to have worked for the Pentagon instead. It is true that his handlers, both from faculty and administration, had to introduce him to assistants and strangers. The PBS documentary A Brilliant Madness attempts to portray his life more accurately.
§ The differences were substantial. Few if any of the characters in the film, besides John and Alicia Nash, corresponded directly to actual people. The discussion of the Nash equilibrium was criticized as over-simplified. In the film, schizophrenic hallucinations appeared while he was in graduate school, when in fact they did not show up until some years later. No mention is made of Nash's supposed homosexual experiences at RAND, which Nash and his wife both denied. Nash also fathered a son, John David Stier (born June 19, 1953), by Eleanor Agnes Stier (1921–2005), a nurse whom he abandoned when informed of her pregnancy.
§ The movie also did not include Alicia's divorce of John in 1963. It was not until Nash won the Nobel Memorial Prize that they renewed their relationship, although she allowed him to live with her as a boarder beginning in 1970. They remarried in 2001.
§ During graduate school, it appears in the movie that Nash was averse to game playing, when, in fact, according to Nasar's biography, he spent many hours playing games and even created a new game called "John" or "Nash" (Hex). Interestingly, the game was somewhat similar to Go, but the shape of the squares became hexagons. The game, somewhat in conflict with the movie's mathematical point, was not one in which "nobody wins," but was "a zero-sum two-person game with perfect information in which one player always has a winning strategy" (p. 77).
§ Nash is shown to join Wheeler Laboratory at MIT, but there is no such lab. He was appointed as C.L.E. Moore Instructor at MIT. The pen ceremony tradition at Princeton shown in the film is completely fictitious. In 1947, the theory of a triple helix had not been proposed yet, yet Ainsley's tie appears to have triple helices on it; Triple-stranded DNA was hypothesized during the 1950s but was not formally proposed until 1952 by Linus Pauling in Nature. The film has Nash saying around the time of his Nobel prize in 1994: "I take the newer medications", when in fact Nash did not take any medication from 1970 onwards, something Nash's biography highlights. Howard later stated that they added the line of dialogue because it was felt as though the film was encouraging the notion that all schizophrenics can overcome their illness without medication. Nash also never gave an acceptance speech for his Nobel prize. Around the time of the Oscar nominations, Nash was accused of being anti-semitic. Nash denied this and it was speculated that the accusation was designed to affect the votes inside the Academy Awards.
· A Beautiful Mind is a beautifully written, effectively acted, and meticulously crafted effort that is likely to remind many viewers of a simple axiom: a movie doesn't have to be groundbreaking to be compelling. Originality is a prized commodity because there is so little of it in Hollywood these days, but, when filmmakers do such a skillful job with familiar elements, their efforts should be acknowledged. Affecting without being overtly manipulative, A Beautiful Mind tells the life story of John Nash, a Nobel prize winner who struggled through most of his adult life with schizophrenia. As directed by Ron Howard, this becomes a tale not only of one man's battle to overcome his own disability, but of the overreaching power of love - a theme that has been embraced by films as diverse as It's a Wonderful Life andRocky.
· A Beautiful Mind may have been developed to be a crowd-pleaser as well as a tear-jerker, but genuine craft is evident in the way the pieces were assembled. The movie never becomes cloying, nor does it threaten to drown us beneath an outpouring of false sentiment. This is no Patch Adams, filled with saccharine-coated artificiality. The characters are effectively drawn and their plight touches an emotional chord. A Beautiful Mind offers a catharsis without insulting the intelligence. Sadly, too few movies these days can make a similar claim. This film argues that there are still instances when Hollywood-produced, big budget movies are worth a viewer's investment of time and money.
· A Beautiful Mind purports to tell the true story of Professor John Nash (Russell Crowe), but, while the gross facts may be accurate, one must expect embellishment of the details. Narrative features are not constrained by the same rules that limit documentaries. We first meet Nash as a student at Princeton in 1947. He is brilliant but erratic - a mathematical genius who lacks social skills. He is aided in making it through those difficult years by his roommate, Charles (Paul Bettany). Years later, following an astounding breakthrough that revolutionizes economics, John is teaching at M.I.T. and doing code-breaking work for a shady government agent, William Parcher (Ed Harris). It's at this time that John meets, falls in love with, and marries Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). But his happy world soon starts to crumble. John is afflicted with paranoid hallucinations; by the time he is taken to a mental hospital under the care of the mysterious Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer), he is diagnosed as having an advanced case of schizophrenia.
· For Russell Crowe, the winner of last year's Best Actor Oscar, this is another opportunity to broaden his range. Crowe successfully buries his personality beneath Nash's, allowing the character to come to the fore (a necessity, considering the actor's current load of off-screen baggage). Much as he did in The Insider, Crowe shows no difficulty inhabiting the skin of a real-life individual who has a stronger intellect than physique. And, when it comes to the sequences depicting Nash battling his demons, Crowe's performance is utterly convincing. Meanwhile, Jennifer Connelly is luminous as Alicia. Although the showier performance belongs to Crowe, it is Connelly's complex work, depicting a woman torn by love for and fear of the same man, that elevates the film to a higher level. The actress was unjustly overlooked for Requiem for a Dream; hopefully, the Academy will not repeat that mistake. Solid support is provided by Ed Harris and Christopher Plummer.
· A viewer certainly doesn't have to be a mathematical expert to appreciate what A Beautiful Mind offers, although those with a strong left-brain component may relate better to John Nash than right-brainers. The movie tosses mathematical theories and theorems in the audience's direction, but explains them simply and lucidly; no one is going to become lost or bored. A Beautiful Mind isn't about mathematics except as a symbol. It's about human frailty and the ability to triumph over it. Nash could just as easily be a doctor, a lawyer, or a construction worker and the essence of the story would not change.
· The strength of the writing and production values elevate A Beautiful Mind far above "disease of the week movie" quality. At the core of the picture lies the relationship between John and Alicia, and the tribulations that the strength of their bond allows them to overcome. On one occasion, a friend asks Alicia how she can continue to stay with her stricken husband, and she replies with a succinct explanation that everyone who has ever been in love will understand. A Beautiful Minddefies the conventional Hollywood wisdom that love is passion and romance. For John and Alicia, it is painful, heartbreaking work. And, while hearts and flowers are great for a fantasy, this is the kind of expression of emotion that touches a deeper chord.
Review:
· Director Ron Howard has created a moving masterpiece, elegantly guiding the audience through John Forbes Nash Jr.'s life starting with Nash as an intense, introverted youth striving for that perfect original idea and ending with Nash as a passionate, patient elderly man battling against his inner demons.
· Through Howard's skilled hand and via Russell Crowe's amazingly understated yet incredibly touching performance, Nash's achievements and flaws are exposed without portraying mental illness in a clichéd cinematic form. Crowe's Nash is an honest, disturbing look at the price paid by people who suffer from schizophrenia and the toll it takes on families and friends.
· "A Beautiful Mind" lays out the story of mathematical genius John Forbes Nash Jr. as he enters Princeton, a bright student with a limitless future ahead of him. Obsessed with finding a way to prove he truly matters, he competes with the other students in Princeton's brutally competitive math department, all of whom are searching for one truly original idea. Inspiration strikes him while he's studying in a local bar surrounded by his rowdy classmates. As they vie for the attention of a stunning blonde, Nash observes their rivalry and, from that, develops his “game theory.” Nash's theory contradicts 150 years of accepted theory and earns him a coveted position at MIT where part of his duty is to teach a course to eager young minds.
· Jennifer Connelly enters the film as one of those eager young minds, Alicia Larde. Alicia falls for the nervous, socially inept Nash, inviting him to dinner and starting a romance that breathes life into Nash's carefully ordered world. As Nash's mental condition unveils itself, worsening with time, Alicia is the one true thing in his world that remains steadfast and dependable.
· Russell Crowe exquisitely captures Nash's passion for his wife, his work, and his unending hunger for excellence. Jennifer Connelly again proves she's a talented actress capable of conquering characters with depth and emotion. The brilliant supporting cast, including Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, and Adam Goldberg, perfectly create the fuzzy environment where Nash roams. Over the course of little more than two hours, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman succeed in unfolding a beautiful story of love, despair, perseverance, compassion and pride the likes of which hasn't been seen on screen in many years.
· "A Beautiful Mind" is easily one of the finest films of the year and deserves the Oscar buzz that surrounds it. The only real Oscar question is whether Crowe's winning last year will negate a nod this year or will the Academy reward what is clearly the best performance of the year with the golden statue it truly deserves.
Storyline
· Biopic of the famed mathematician John Nash and his lifelong struggles with his mental health. Nash enrolled as a graduate student at Princeton in 1948 and almost immediately stood out as an odd duck. He devoted himself to finding something unique, a mathematical theorem that would be completely original. He kept to himself for the most part and while he went out for drinks with other students, he spends a lot of time with his roommate, Charles, who eventually becomes his best friend. John is soon a professor at MIT where he meets and eventually married a graduate student, Alicia. Over time however John begins to lose his grip on reality, eventually being institutionalized diagnosed with schizophrenia. As the depths of his imaginary world are revealed, Nash withdraws from society and it's not until the 1970s that he makes his first foray back into the world of academics, gradually returning to research and teaching. In 1994, John Nash was awarded the Nobel prize in Economics.
· John Forbes Nash, Jr. was a child prodigy. While other boys his age were playing childhood games in their hometown of Bluefield, West Virginia, John was reading E.T. Bell’s Men of Mathematics. Learning more at home than he did at school, the young lad (who was encouraged by his educated parents) was able to solve some of math’s most difficult problems.
· Accepting a full-ride fellowship to Princeton University, John Nash was surrounded by some of the best and brightest people working in mathematics and science at the time. Undaunted by the brilliance of people like Albert Einstein, the blossoming genius followed his own path. When he was 21, Nash wrote a doctoral thesis that eventually made him a Nobel Laureate.
· But that Nobel Prize came decades after most people had either written off John Nash or thought he was dead. What caused people to think such a thing? The words of Nash himself best describe the unraveling of his brilliant mind:
· "[The movie] captures the spirit of the journey, and I think that it is authentic in what it conveys to a large extent. Certain aspects of it are dealt with symbolically. How do you understand what goes on inside a person's mind when under stress, when mentally ill, when operating at the highest levels of achievement. The script tries to offer some insight, but it's impossible to be entirely accurate. Most of what is presented in the script is a kind of synthesis of many aspects of Nash's life. I don't think it's outrageous.
· We are using [Nash] as a figure, as a kind of symbol. We are using a lot of pivotal moments in his life and his life with Alicia as the sort of bedrock for this movie ... even though we are taking licence, we are trying to deal with it in a fairly authentic way so that an audience is transported and can begin to understand. But they can't begin to understand completely; they never could - no one could."
· "[W]hat we're doing here is not a literal representation of the life of John Nash, it's a story inspired by the life of John Nash, so what we hope to do is evoke a kind of emotional journey that is reminiscent of the emotional journey that John and Alicia went through. In that sense, it's true - we hope - but it's not factual. For me, it was taking the architecture of his life, the high points, the low points, and then using that as a kind of wire frame, draping invented scenes, invented interactions in order to tell a truthful but somewhat more metaphoric story.
· I think that to vet this by exposing it to historical accuracy is absurd. This movie is not about the literal moment-to-moment life of John Nash. It's an invention ... What we did is we used from his life what served the story we are trying to tell, which is why we are saying this is not a biopic. It could never bear up to that kind of scrutiny, it never wanted to, it never pretended to be a biopic. It always wanted to be a human journey, based on someone, inspired by someone's life."
· One of the most derided scenes in Good Will Hunting is where the hero starts to write equations on a bathroom mirror. Conveniently forgetting that the great Irish mathematician Alexander Rowan Hamilton scratched the key identities for the quaternions on a stone bridge - the only writing surface available to him at the time inspiration struck him - the critics scoffed that no mathematician would ever do such a thing. Those critics will surely have another opportunity to trash Hollywood's romanticism with A Beautiful Mind, which has an almost identical scene, in which Crowe writes mathematics on a window pane
