A Beautiful Mind ReviewA Beautiful Mind tells the life story of John Nash, a Nobel laureate who struggled for most of his adult life against schizophrenia. Directed by Ron Howard, this film becomes not only the story of one man's struggle to overcome his own disability, but also of the surpassing power of love - a theme that has been shown in many films that I enjoy. A Beautiful Mind was perhaps developed to be both pleasing to the eye and to making one cry, for you know that this is a man's life without falsehoods. It's blatant and true, that's all. This film proves that there are still cases where big budget films produced in Hollywood are worth the investment of time and money by the viewer. A Beautiful Mind tells the true story of Professor John Nash (Russell Crowe), but while the crude facts may be accurate, some embellishment of the details is to be expected. It first shows Nash studying at Princeton in 1947. He is brilliant but erratic – a mathematical genius who lacks social skills. He is helped through these difficult years by his roommate, Charles. Years later, following a stunning breakthrough that revolutionizes the economy, John teaches at MIT and does codebreaking work for a shady government agent, William Parcher (Ed Harris). It was during this time that John met, fell in love and married Alicia (Jennifer Connelly). But his happy world soon begins to fall apart. John is afflicted with paranoid hallucinations; by the time he is taken to a psychiatric hospital under the care of the mysterious Dr. Rosen, he is diagnosed with an advanced case of schizophrenia. Russell Crowe won the Best Actor Oscar in 2000 for Gladiator, and in this film he doesn't. I give nothing less than an excellent performance. Crowe manages to bury his personality beneath that of Nash, allowing the character to come to life and the audience to see into his mind. And when it comes to the sequences showing Nash battling his demons, Crowe's performance is convincing. At the same time, Jennifer Connelly is wonderful as Alicia. She describes well a woman torn by love and fear of the same man. The film throws mathematical theories and theorems in the direction of the audience, but explains them simply and lucidly; so I was never lost or bored. A Beautiful Mind is not about mathematics except as a symbol. It's about human fragility and the ability to triumph over it.