It is so interesting to go back to a film that one loves after a long absence. It offers one a chance to re-assess the film, and to some extent gauge whether initial enthusiasm was warranted.
In the case of "A Beautiful Mind", it was. Big time.
I was fortunate to have been able to see this Ron Howard gem when it first came out, in the theaters. In fact, I can remember where I saw it, the Century Theaters in Mountain View, California when I was living in Sunnyvale, California. Not that any of that matters, but the film had such a profound effect on me it is important to remember where I was when I first saw it. That profound effect was produced both by the mastery of the film-making and acting, and also by how deeply it affected me.
Despite its detractors -- and there are some -- I really don't understand how anyone cannot find this to be a stunning, remarkable film full of passion, meaning and artistic beauty. It starts with the story, which is probably largely true, concerning the descent into the Hell of severe mental illness that Nobel-prize winning Mathematician John Nash experienced in the 1950s. It continues with the light but expert hand of filmmaker Ron Howard who, IMHO is one of the most under-rated filmmakers working in this country. And it continues with a lovely score by the late, great James Horner and ends with remarkable, memorable performances from an A List cast, including the Oscar-winning turn by Jennifer Connelly as Nash's long-suffering wife, and a great group of supporting players lead by another criminally-underrated actor, Josh Lucas, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany and the wonderful Judd Hirsch.
The main event here, is the story of Nash, and his Character, played with almost Shakespearean power by previous Oscar-winner Russell Crowe. As much as Crowe's star has faded a bit in recent years it burns "with a hard, gem-like flame" (John Ruskin) here, as Crowe takes on a very, very difficult task: to morph from the arrogant intelligence of a younger Nash, through the Hellish flowering of Schizophrenia - perhaps the worst of all emotional disorders - and finally emerge triumphantly on the other side. Not so much at the Nobel Awards ceremony, which is of course his triumphant public moment, but in his ability to come to terms with his illness, accept that he does need medical treatment but also that he needs to fight the demons that besiege him for himself, for his wife and for his students. This is what great film-making is all about.
Why this actually made me cry upon re-watching is because my Family has had its own share of Mental Illness. It is not appropriate to share the details of that (out of respect for their privacy) in a Public Blog, but sufficed to say I know very much what those who knew and loved Nash went through watching him struggle with this terrible disease. The film tugged at my heart strings not in any cliched or manipulative way, but in a very powerful and personal way.
Thank you Ron Howard, Russell Crowe but most of all John Nash.
