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A
Beautiful Mind
(click picture to visit website)
Just
so that you know the calibre of your reviewer, let me inform you straight
away that one of my favourite films of all time is Shrek,
and I have watched it over and over again, and am also the proud owner
of a hair band decorated with Shrek ears (free if you pre-ordered the
video from WH Smith). Of course, I don't wear it in public, but hey-ho,
in the privacy of my own home…
Now you know where I'm coming from I'll tell you where I've been... to
the Warner Village Cinema in Newcastle-Under-Lyme to see "A Beautiful
Mind", starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany and
Ed. Harris. Based on the book of the same name, by Sylvia Nasar, the film
is an overview of the life of John Forbes Nash Jr. in three acts.
You will recognise the formula…
The first act, GENIUS, takes place in Princeton University. Aged 21, brilliant,
playful and highly eccentric, Nash struggles to come up with an original
idea, which will make his name, and invents "game theory". I'm
not going to pretend to know anything about it, or that I'd even heard
of it before this film, but I am reliably informed that' it's an influential
theory of rational human behaviour. If we are talking rational, what I
want to know is ...why didn't anyone think to give that boy a sheet of
paper? … writing all over those windows like that! They wouldn't stand
for it in my local library, I can tell you. Perhaps it's because I'm not
a genius, or eccentric enough…. yet!
Anyway, back to the plot. During this time, Nash meets and marries a talented
and beautiful physicist, called Alicia.
With the second act comes his catastrophic breakdown or DOWNFALL. Aged
31, he is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He experiences delusions,
is unable to work, and is repeatedly incarcerated in mental hospitals.
The third and final act, TRIUMPH OVER ADVERSITY, occurs three decades
on. Nash is impoverished , in ill health, and all but forgotten, when
twin miracles occur. His schizophrenia goes into an almost unprecedented
remission, and at the age of 65 he is awarded the Nobel prize for Economics,
in 1994.
Hollywood does these inspirational Academy-friendly (ooopss, that just
slipped out!) bio-pics so well. Your disbelief is suspended, even before
your Cornetto is unwrapped. On this level, "A beautiful Mind"
is a gripping story, well told and well acted. It has already collected
4 Golden Globes, including Best Actor Award for Russell Crowe. He also
received the Best Actor BAFTA's award, and is nominated for an Oscar.
Whilst Crowe is totally convincing in his role as Nash, Jennifer Connelly
is heart-rending as the long-suffering wife and nominated for best supporting
actress Oscar.
Paul Bettany is raffish and devil-may-care as Charles Herman, close college
friend of Nash (I don't want to spoil it for those who haven't seen the
film yet), and Christopher Plummer, suitably sly and sinister - as the
doctor responsible for hospitalising Nash.
Other Oscar nominations include for Adapted Screenplay, and Ron Howard,
for Best Director. Although I came away from the film reflecting on what
it must feel like for those with schizophrenia, to have unseen voices
shouting, at them to loose their capacity to feel or think logically,
I still have anxieties about "A Beautiful Mind". I feel guilty
about enjoying it at all, on any level. Even if this was a piece of fiction,
I'm not sure how comfortable I would be with another film buying into
this disability is acceptable if it's redeemed by some great intellectual
or spiritual superiority myth.
A feel good movie? - I'm sure that for many of those affected by schizophrenia
it doesn't feel good, particularly for those who wind up homeless, friendless,
in jail or commit suicide. It wasn't that good for Nash. The feel-good
ending of this film masks the reality of a personal and professional life
effectively wrecked for 30-odd years, and which is still not without it's
problems.
Also, it turns out that in pursuit of the inspirational story about triumph
over illness, Ron Howard has coyly airbrushed out any inconveniences in
the real Nash's life. For instance, Nash was bisexual, and conducted risky
relationships with other men, being arrested for importuning in a public
lavatory on one occasion. However, watching this film only the cognoscenti
will attach any importance to his eyeing up of other men in the corridors.
Nash abandoned his secret mistress and illegitimate son, and had no relationship
with him until he was almost an adult. He was divorced from Alicia after
seven years, although she remained loyal to him and they remarried last
year. Altogether more "lie-o-pic" than "bi-o-pic",
I wonder how this film would have turned out in the hands of Mike "given
the choice of Hollywood, or poking steel pins into my eyes, I'd prefer
steel pins" Leigh, or Ken Loach, responsible for such films as "Up
the Junction", "Poor Cow", "Raining Stones",
"Ladybird Ladybird" and many others.
In conclusion, "A Beautiful Mind" ,as an overview of a life
remains a entertaining and interesting film. Go and see it, and make up
your own mind.  Another
film worth seeing is "Gosford Park", for the sheer joy of seeing
Maggie Smith and Stephen Fry on good form. Did you see the BAFTA awards
ceremony, hosted by him? His AIDS ribbon was centre stage all evening.
God - I love that man! And Shrek?...see Shrek!
Maureen
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