A Beautiful Mind

Released 1998
Stars Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Vivien Cardone, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, Christopher Plummer
Directed by Ron Howard

The Nobel Prize winner John Forbes Nash Jr. still teaches at Princeton, and walks to campus every day. That these commonplace statements nearly brought tears to my eyes suggests the power of "A Beautiful Mind," the story of a man who is one of the greatest mathematicians, and a victim of schizophrenia. Nash's discoveries in game theory have an impact on our lives every day. He also believed for a time that Russians were sending him coded messages on the front page of the New York Times.

"A Beautiful Mind" stars Russell Crowe as Nash, and Jennifer Connelly as his wife, Alicia, who is pregnant with their child when the first symptoms of his disease become apparent. It tells the story of a man whose mind was of enormous service to humanity while at the same time betrayed him with frightening delusions. Crowe brings the character to life by sidestepping sensationalism and building with small behavioral details. He shows a man who descends into madness and then, unexpectedly, regains the ability to function in the academic world. Nash has been compared to Newton, Mendel and Darwin, but was also for many years just a man muttering to himself in the corner.

Summary by Roger Ebert

I can't even imagine the horror of living with schizophrenia. It must be like living every day not knowing whether you're dreaming or awake. Worse yet, you may be both. "A Beautiful Mind" does a wonderful job of painting this picture for us through an unusual main character, John Nash. John is an unusual choice for Hollywood because of two reasons: 1) he's not very likeable, and 2) he's a mathematician. Hollywood will jump all over an unlikeable drug dealer or killer, but they don't get too excited about scientists. I'm glad they told this story, though, because it really gives a glimpse into the world of schizophrenia. I've seen several other movies that involved this topic, but this one probably gave me the best insight.

One thing I found interesting in the movie was the subject of mathematics. I have a minor in math and my wife majored in it. We both spent four years moving from basic calculus to differential equations, and fifteen years later we barely remember it. I find it fascinating that higher level mathematics are so complicated that not very many people are even capable of learning them, and the subjects are so non-intuitive that years of learning can be forgotten with just a few years of inactivity. What's scary is that John Nash and his colleagues worked on levels that were light-years beyond anything I ever touched. From the movie it's not clear just how good John really was. He was obviously quite talented to be in a graduate program at Princeton, but I had the sense that he really only had one accomplishment, which was the bargaining theory. After reading a short autobiography, I learned this wasn't true. He was able to weave in and out of the math world as his condition allowed, and he made several breakthroughs and contributions. From the movie's perspective, I doubt he would have been able to come back had it not been for his wife, who stood by him through everything. I always have to ask the question in a situation like this whether the affliction is worse for the person who has it or the person who loves them. --Bill Alward, December 23, 2002