by Chris Marshall:
A Beautiful Mind
is at times brilliant and at times schmaltzy, but it’s always interesting. I
think that might have more to do with the subject of the film himself rather
than Ron Howard’s directing, but either way, I like this movie, despite its
many imperfections. Even though I was frustrated with it on a number of
occasions, it was easy enough to overlook those flaws.
I first saw it over a decade ago shortly after reading the
book, written by Sylvia Nasar, which I also enjoyed immensely. The film is a
loose adaptation of the biography, which covers John Nash’s early life, work,
descent into madness, and recovery in much greater detail. I think Howard’s
decision to narrow the scope of the book was the correct one; schizophrenia is
difficult to portray on-screen, so using more tangible representations of Nash’s
hallucinations was the right call.
For the uninitiated, the film version of A Beautiful Mind is about John Nash, the
economist and mathematician responsible for many breakthroughs in game theory,
particularly what is now known as the Nash equilibrium. More specifically, it’s
about his struggles with schizophrenia and his eventual, near-miraculous
recovery, after which he is awarded the Nobel Prize in economics.
