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Another movie I watched in school. I quite remember when it first came out and I avoided it, thinking it looked boring, that Russell Crowe was in too many movies, and that I did not want to see Paul Bettany (whom I irrationally dislike. I'm sure he is a wonderful person, and I wouldn't say he is a bad actor. I just...don't care for him as an actor.) I remember when it won an Oscar, and that still didn't make me want to see it. Finally...in 2015, I had no choice. We watched it in class and you aren't allowed to leave early unless you have a good reason. Not wanting to watch a movie does not count as a good reason.
The experience was not so bad. The first part, where John is at college was very slow-moving and hard to sit through. After John graduates and meets and begins working with the mysterious Mr. Parcher, things pick up considerably. We soon learn that things are not as they seem for John. This is confirmed with his diagnosis of Schizophrenia. With the help of his (not-very-interesting-in-the-movie) wife Alicia, John struggles to lead a "normal" life, although he finds it harder than expected to leave his old "world" behind.
This is another movie that I saw in German, so I can say that Russell Crowe did a very good job, but I also have to give credit to the German voice-over actor for John. A German-voiced stand-in for Paul Bettany was more than alright with me, and while his character Charles seemed dull at first, he ends up being a very significant and fascinating part of the movie.
As for John's illness, the movie does an okay job at portraying Schizophrenia. I was interested enough in the movie to do a little bit of reading about John and Alicia (who tragically passed away together in the summer of 2015) and learned that the movie does not do the best job of portraying John's Schizophrenia. They also omitted a lot of interesting details about John and Alicia's personal life (they did divorce, but Alicia continued to help John out and even allowed him to live at her house. They eventually remarried in 2000 and remained married for the rest of their lives.) They even tackily omitted the fact that Alicia came from El Salvador. Jennifer Connelly...definitely is not from there.
All in all, for a more interesting than expected movie about Schizophrenia, "A Beautiful Mind" is worth watching. For a story about John Nash, I believe there is a PBS documentary that will teach people who he actually was.
7 1/2 out of 10 stars.
