Looking back at the year 2001, the movies the Academy has to choose from for this year’s Oscar race are pretty slim. Sure there were a couple of diamonds amongst the Hollywood blockbusters that paid more attention to plot than explosions (like "The Royal Tennenbaums" and "Monster’s Ball") but unlike previous years with their "Erin Brockovich"’s and "Titanic"’s there were no guaranteed Oscar contenders.
That is until Ron Howard’s "A Beautiful Mind" came out.
Loosely based on events in the life of mathematician and Nobel Prize Winner John Forbes Nash, Jr., "A Beautiful Mind" is an emotional journey through the life of a genius who to this day has a difficult time distinguishing reality from make believe. A paranoid schizophrenic, Nash (played perfectly by Academy Award winner Russell Crowe) lives his life in confusion trying to figure out where reality ends and his imagination takes over. Although medication temporarily relieves Nash of his delusions, they also take Nash away from his real life-- his abilities to be a loving husband, a caring father and a knowledgeable professor. Determined to beat the disease that took away his career without relying on drugs, Nash turns to his own troubled mind and the love of his patient wife (Jennifer Connelly) to regain control of the mind that once won him the Nobel Prize.
Running 2 hours in length, "A Beautiful Mind" takes its time to develop both of Nash’s worlds completely-- unlike other recent biography pictures I’ll leave nameless that create a montage of one’s life rather than a re-creation of it. However, it’s the performances by Crowe and Connelly and the script by Akiva Goldsman that make this film a guaranteed Oscar contender, and in my book will make Crowe a back-to-back Best Actor Oscar winner.
Russell Crowe gives the performance of the year as John Nash, Jr. From his earlier days as a troubled mathematician trying to discover the formula that will make him a success to his later days as a man plagued by visions that don’t exist, Crowe transforms on-screen from a brilliant loner to a paranoid and sick individual with such ease that one will forget they are watching a movie. The mannerisms, the stuttering, Crowe brings all the clues that Nash was sick even during his days at Princeton to life so that viewers who may not know the real John Nash will be clued in from the start that something isn’t quite right with him. Furthermore, there are no jumps in his
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