Award winning director Ron Howard has created a masterpiece, guiding the audience through John Forbes Nash Jr.'s (Russell Crowe) life starting with Nash as an astonishing young matmatician striving for that perfect original idea when he becomes entangled in a mysterious crime. This is a story of passion, struggle, and courage.
Through Howard’s directing and Crowe’s amazing performance portrays Nash's achievements, along with his flaws without showing mental illness as something that society frowns upon. Crowe's performance as John Nash is an honest, but true look at the price paid by people who suffer from schizophrenia and the toll it takes on families and friends.
"A Beautiful Mind" is the story of mathematical genius John Forbes Nash Jr. as he enters Princeton University, a bright student with all the tools in life to be successful and make a difference. Obsessed with the idea that his is always right and truly matters, he competes against other students in Princeton’s challenging math department. While studying in a bar surrounded by all of his competitors, he competes with them for the attention of the young, gorgeous women at the bar. After studying his classmates for a while, he develops his ‘game theory,” which earns him a position at MIT, where one of his tasks is to teach a math class to the eager minds of Princeton.
Jennifer Connelly enters as Alicia Larde, one of the eager minds in Nash;s class. Alicia quickly falls for the socially unacceptable, and rather boring Josh Nash. Her invitation of going to dinner together sparks a romance among the two, and brings life and excitement into Nash’s orderly world. Alicia is the one and only thing that will remain real and consistent in Nash’s own world as is condition worsens and becomes known.
In such a short time, director Ron Howard and screenwriter Akiva Goldsman are able to provide us with such a powerful story of pride, love, despair, compassion, and triumph. Russell Crowe is able to brilliantly capture the passion and devotion to his wife and his work, while striving for that never ending feeling of excellence. The amazing performance from Jennifer Connelly is unforgettable as she captures Nash’s wife Alicia with such compassion and emotion. "A Beautiful Mind" is easily one of the finest films that I have viewed in a long time, and highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys a well written, beautifully acted movie.
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2 comments:
Hi Talia:
Nice work. You have a good fluency to your writing and an engaging style. I'm glad you foregrounded the subject of schizophrenia early because the movie's message in that regard is an important one.
You provide a clear account of the film's plot without giving away the strong ending (as I recall, anyway) of the film.
My only suggestion in terms of "big" change: can you provide just a bit of background info (Howard's relevant work, for example: is this film typical of that work?). Of course, the other question that comes to mind is whether the film accurately portrays the life of Nash. Answering that question, though, may be difficult without a bit of research.
Finally, I noted some minor problems of phrasing and some typos:
"Through Howard’s directing and Crowe’s amazing performance [I think a subject/noun is dropped here?] portrays Nash's achievements, along with his flaws without showing mental illness as something that society frowns upon."
"Obsessed with the idea that his [idea?] is always right and truly matters"
Still, this is a strong review. Good job.
I forgot to add this: please identify a specific magazine for which this review would be appropriate. Thanks.
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