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Forgivably
Flawed: A Beautiful Mind
by Christian De Matteo
Super
I had to resist the temptation to call this review
“A Beautiful Movie.”
That just seemed too simultaneous glib and
un-clever. (And
what I decided on is really so
much better.)
But there really is a distinct correlation
between A
Beautiful Mind’s subject John Nash and the
film itself.
Ever since Backdraft,
Ron Howard has reigned as my favorite director,
consistently proving his might at making solid,
down-to-earth entertainment with a real human
factor and an intellectual side.
Mind is just by the nature of its subject, an intellectual movie.
And Howard does a truly genius job of
entering us directly into Nash’s mind and
personal experience in such a way that we
understand his mental state better than if we had
just been told what it was.
Howard makes us live not as a viewer of
Nash, but through Nash, understanding the world
the way he does, and the film would not be
anywhere near as powerful as it is if he hadn’t
tackled it in this way.
A key element of this movie is its casting, upon
which much of the film’s success rests.
This is nothing if not a deep and intense
character study of not just the main character but
a study of the character of the people around him.
Russell Crowe, who I long to hate because
he’s attained “Consummate Hunk” status, is
astounding, delivering an acting turn maybe even
better than his turn in The
Insider where he blew me away.
Thanks to one particular female in my life
who, oddly for a woman these days— right,
loves Crowe, I have seen a good number of his more obscure movies,
like Breaking
Up and fully appreciate his amazing range as
an actor. With
every new movie I watch with him, I get more and
more annoyed that, of all things, he won for Gladiator,
a role that, for an actor of his caliber, was a
walk in the park.
I can’t imagine Ridley Scott’s
direction to Crowe having been much more than,
“Russ, you’re wife and kid have been killed
and your freedom’s been taken:
Grunt and kill things.”
Any subtlety needed for such a character
are ones that Crowe could do while asleep.
Naturally, when he applies his skill to a character
as deeply complex as Nash, he handles it so
artfully that— the true sign of pure acting
giftedness— the audience forgets that Nash is
Russell Crowe because he is not
that good looking slab of meat the women love, but
a graceless, socially blundering, brainiac too
smart to not trip over his own mind and inherent
“logic.” To paraphrase the wise Shrek, Crowe gives us a character like
an onion, with layers upon layers, more fully
realized than 90% of other screen characters.
In short, he is astounding.
Add to this mix the delicious and talented Jennifer Connelly (oooh….
Jennifer Connelly) who’s acting ability is
paralleled only by her absolutely classic beauty.
And the proof of her excellent ability is
that she can act so well that she can make herself
repulsive without changing her appearance (Requiem for a Dream). Her
role her is actually a relatively simple one for
her, or perhaps she just makes it look simple.
Using total subtly she manages to portray
the internal battle of an adoring wife dealt a
terribly unfair hand and fighting the battle
between misery and loyalty.
My only complaint here is that she
doesn’t have enough screen time to do it.
What she does do is so perfect you only
really realize it on reflection.
Utilizing these and several other fine actors, Howard
(Apollo 13,
Splash) crafts an intense and engaging story
that pulls you into it and truly takes you for a
ride. The
surprise of this film, which I hope doesn’t get
ruined for you, is wonderful because it’s not a The
Others-like gimmick, but a well-crafted and
well-executed logical trip through a reality.
I will say no more on that except the
Howard handles this masterly.
Except
for one key scene. No spoilers here, I will only say that maybe he slipped with
the scissors and accidentally cut an expository
scene, because the entrance of Christopher
Plummer’s (12 Monkeys) character doesn’t
really make sense when you look back over the
movie later, and doesn’t make sense in any real
reality. This
is where the film is flawed like it’s character
because it trips over its own brilliance and has
gone so far above our heads (not in a way that
will bother you, don’t worry) that it logically
loses logic.
I apologize because I can’t explain any
better than that without giving anything away.
Please feel free to respond to me in the
Forum if you find the scene and agree or disagree
with me.
The other flaw of this film is a hard one to fix,
though it has been done.
Covering the majority of man’s life in a
two-hour movie is no small task.
While Mind
does a good job of getting through it and not
getting hung up on little details, it also skips
over things that it has already engaged you too
much to not feel like you are being cheated.
Nash’s personal recovery that spans half
of his life is jumped through via episodes with
screen titles telling the audience what year they
are now in. Though
I could not at this moment come up with a better
way to handle this, it slightly cheapens the film
by giving it the feeling of the storyteller
cheating. What
Nash and his wife have to endure together could
make a movie unto itself full of all the sound and
the fury of two lovers enduring the worst of
travails, and we don’t get to watch it all.
Howard has grabbed us so well, that that
loss hurts. I
would love to see if there is a much longer
director’s cut of this on DVD.
I would be willing to bet a lot more was
filmed on this movie.
Regardless of these flaws, they do not bring the
movie down much because it is an excellent
creation that manages to be both entertaining and
intellectual, a nice reminder to Hollywood that
no, these two things are not mutually exclusive.
Throwing into the mix mostly excellent
make-up and a sharp script (the lack of which
would have completely damned the movie that so
depended on character interaction and convincing
crafting), Howard has on his hands another great
film and one he and his cast should be very proud
of.
Upon
Deep Reflection
by Christian De Matteo
WIMPY
...it
sucks.
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