Title: "A Beautiful Mind"
Director: Ron Howard
Producer: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Editing: Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill
Composer: James Horner
Starring:
- Russel Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr.
- Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash
- Ed Harris as William Parcher
- Paul Bettany as Charles Herman
Plot and Critical Review: John Nash arrives at Princeton University as a new graduate student. He is a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Prize for mathematics; although he was promised a single room, his roommate Charles Herman, a literature student, greets him as he moves in and soon becomes his best friend. Nash also meets a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Martin Hansen, Sol, Ainsley, and Bender, with whom he strikes up an awkward friendship. Nash admits to Charles that he is better with numbers than he is with people, which comes as no surprise to them after watching his largely unsuccessful attempts at conversation with the women at the local bar.
Martin Hansen challenges Nash to a game of Go. Though he claims to have played every move in the game correctly, Nash loses and Hansen mocks him: "Gentlemen, The Great John Nash"! Nash exclaims that "The game is flawed."
After the conclusion of Nash's studies as a student at Princeton, he accepts a prestigious appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with his friends Sol and Bender. Five years later, while teaching a class on calculus at MIT, he places a particularly interesting problem on the chalkboard that he dares his students to solve. When his student Alicia Larde comes to his office to discuss the problem, the two fall in love and eventually marry.
On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into his former roommate Charles and meets Charles' young niece Marcee, whom he adores. Nash is invited to a secret Department of Defense facility in the Pentagon to crack a complex encryption of an enemy telecommunication. Nash is able to decipher the code mentally, to the astonishment of other codebreakers. Here, he encounters the mysterious William Parcher, who belongs to the United States Department of Defense. Parcher gives Nash a new assignment to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers, ostensibly to thwart a Soviet plot. He must write a report of his findings and place them in a specified mailbox. After being chased by Russian agents and an exchange of gunfire, Nash becomes increasingly paranoid and begins to behave erratically.
After observing this erratic behavior, Alicia informs a psychiatric hospital. Later, while delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash realizes that he is being watched by a hostile group of people and is forcibly sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility. Nash's internment seemingly confirms his belief that the Soviets are trying to extract information from him. He views the officials of the psychiatric facility as Soviet kidnappers. At one point, he gorily tries to dig out of his arm an implant he received at an unused warehouse on the MIT campus which was supposedly used as a listening facility by the DoD.
Alicia, desperate to help her husband, visits the mailbox and retrieves the never-opened "top secret" documents that Nash had delivered there. When confronted with this evidence, Nash is finally convinced that he has been hallucinating. The Department of Defense agent William Parcher and Nash's secret assignment to decode Soviet messages was in fact all a delusion. Even more surprisingly, Nash's "prodigal roommate" Charles and his niece Marcee are also only products of Nash's mind.
After a series of insulin shock therapy sessions, Nash is released on the condition that he agrees to take antipsychotic medication; however, the drugs create negative side-effects that affect his sexual and emotional relationship with his wife and, most dramatically, his intellectual capacity. Frustrated, Nash secretly stops taking his medication and hoards his pills, triggering a relapse of his psychosis.
Caught between the intellectual paralysis of the antipsychotic drugs and his delusions, Nash and Alicia decide to try to live with his abnormal condition. Nash consciously says goodbye to the three delusional characters forever in his attempts to ignore his hallucinations and not feed "his demons". He thanks Charles for being his best friend over the years, and says a tearful goodbye to Marcee, stroking her hair and calling her "baby girl", telling them both he would not speak to them anymore. They still continue to haunt him, with Charles mocking him for cutting off their friendship, but Nash learns to ignore them.
Nash grows older and approaches his old friend and intellectual rival Martin Hansen, now head of the Princeton mathematics department. Hansen allows him to study in the Princeton library and audit courses. Even though Nash still suffers from hallucinations and mentions taking newer medications, he is ultimately able to live with and largely ignore his psychotic episodes. He takes his situation in stride and humorously checks to ensure that any new acquaintances are in fact real people, not hallucinations.
Nash eventually earns the privilege of teaching again. He is honored by his fellow professors for his achievement in mathematics, and goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. Nash and Alicia are about to leave the auditorium in Stockholm, when Nash sees Charles, Marcee and Parcher standing and watching him with blank expressions on their faces. Alicia asks Nash, "What's wrong?" Nash replies, "Nothing. Nothing at all." With that, they both leave the auditorium.
"A Beautiful Mind" was decorated with four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Although the list of awards this film has received is long there has been much debate about whether it deserved the Oscar for Best Picture. Some found the movie intriguing but lacking in depth. Others criticized Howard's selection of Crowe to tackle the method-heavy role of mathematical genius John Nash. I disagree with all criticisms. I find Crowe's performance inspiring and worthy to be placed beside the many actors and actresses who have braved difficult terrain in portraying "genius-type" characters. Harris must have given Crowe a few tips about this particular style of method-acting after his noteworthy portrayals of composer L.V. Beethoven ("Copying Beethoven") and artist Jackson Pollock ("Pollock").
This film is also important in the chronicling of Jennifer Connelly's acting career. I do not believe she's yet made her "big move" into the next echelon of cinematic fame, but with performances like the one she provides in "A Beautiful Mind", we know that great leap is not far in the future.
My Rating: 8/10
Content to Caution:
V-2 – There is some pushing and punching. In one scene John is involved in a car chase in which gunfire is exchanged.
L-2 – No comment.
DU-2 – Drinking and smoking.
RT-0 – No comment.
H/S-2 – No comment.
CH-1 – While comical, John belittles the act of intercourse as he tries to communicate with women.
S/N-1 – Some kissing.
The "Reel Revelation": "Distractions"
Are you the sort of person that gets easily distracted? Perhaps you know of someone with a short attention span who can't ever seem to stay on track or on task. Who is to be blamed for such weak focus? After all, the amount of stimuli we're bombarded with every day is off the scale. If you want to do an experiment, write down a list of all the things you know you do every day. You don't have to be precise, just get down as many tasks, errands, and responsibilities you can think of. Do you think it's possible to go from one task to the next without a particular task not on the list demanding your time and attention? How easily we deviate from the list!
Distractions account for an enormous amount of lost time and wasted energy. While there are some people who are able to multi-task and work on seemingly opposing projects with efficiency, we all struggle with the ability to keep our minds focused on what is at hand, what is most important, and what must be done in the moment. And then there are people like John Nash who (despite of legitimate psychological complications) actually create a world of distraction within their own life. Instead of having a complicated "to-do" list, however, John has created a "to-do" list out of things born of the distraction of his mind. We might not suffer from such extreme cases of hallucination and psychosis but we all know the experience of getting so off-track we feel as if we're in another world. It's when we're on that "other track" or trapped in that "other world" that we potentially lose precious opportunities to be in God's presence, hear his voice, and do his bidding. This is nothing new.
"Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)
But the sources of distraction are not just temporal as they were in that story when Martha was tied up with housework. Indeed, there are great forces which are not of this world that fight for our attention. Consider this prayer from Psalm 55:
"Give ear to my prayer, O God;
And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
Give heed to me and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted,
Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the pressure of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble upon me
And in anger they bear a grudge against me." (Psalm 55: 1-3)
I think we can agree that any one of those things would probably be enough to send our attention and focus wheeling out of control. How much more will the deceptive voice of Satan (our enemy) cause our lives to stall out as we struggle against grief, worry, fear, and anxiety. In this way we see that John Nash's predicament is not so extreme. Perhaps we've all been in his shoes; wrapped up in a world full of distraction, a world tumbling out of control. Sometimes we stay in that "world" so long that we don't mind being distracted and we hardly notice we're tumbling at all. If you happen to be tumbling right now, do as the Psalmist did: cry out to God, confess your distractions, and hold fast to God's grace. It's then that you will find a place of peace in which you can lay down your troubles, untie your apron, unload your burdens, and sit at the feet of Jesus having no care but to listen to his words of love for you today.
See you Monday - E.T.
Director: Ron Howard
Producer: Brian Grazer and Ron Howard
Editing: Daniel P. Hanley and Mike Hill
Composer: James Horner
Starring:
- Russel Crowe as John Forbes Nash Jr.
- Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash
- Ed Harris as William Parcher
- Paul Bettany as Charles Herman
Plot and Critical Review: John Nash arrives at Princeton University as a new graduate student. He is a recipient of the prestigious Carnegie Prize for mathematics; although he was promised a single room, his roommate Charles Herman, a literature student, greets him as he moves in and soon becomes his best friend. Nash also meets a group of other promising math and science graduate students, Martin Hansen, Sol, Ainsley, and Bender, with whom he strikes up an awkward friendship. Nash admits to Charles that he is better with numbers than he is with people, which comes as no surprise to them after watching his largely unsuccessful attempts at conversation with the women at the local bar.
Martin Hansen challenges Nash to a game of Go. Though he claims to have played every move in the game correctly, Nash loses and Hansen mocks him: "Gentlemen, The Great John Nash"! Nash exclaims that "The game is flawed."
After the conclusion of Nash's studies as a student at Princeton, he accepts a prestigious appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), along with his friends Sol and Bender. Five years later, while teaching a class on calculus at MIT, he places a particularly interesting problem on the chalkboard that he dares his students to solve. When his student Alicia Larde comes to his office to discuss the problem, the two fall in love and eventually marry.
On a return visit to Princeton, Nash runs into his former roommate Charles and meets Charles' young niece Marcee, whom he adores. Nash is invited to a secret Department of Defense facility in the Pentagon to crack a complex encryption of an enemy telecommunication. Nash is able to decipher the code mentally, to the astonishment of other codebreakers. Here, he encounters the mysterious William Parcher, who belongs to the United States Department of Defense. Parcher gives Nash a new assignment to look for patterns in magazines and newspapers, ostensibly to thwart a Soviet plot. He must write a report of his findings and place them in a specified mailbox. After being chased by Russian agents and an exchange of gunfire, Nash becomes increasingly paranoid and begins to behave erratically.
After observing this erratic behavior, Alicia informs a psychiatric hospital. Later, while delivering a guest lecture at Harvard University, Nash realizes that he is being watched by a hostile group of people and is forcibly sedated and sent to a psychiatric facility. Nash's internment seemingly confirms his belief that the Soviets are trying to extract information from him. He views the officials of the psychiatric facility as Soviet kidnappers. At one point, he gorily tries to dig out of his arm an implant he received at an unused warehouse on the MIT campus which was supposedly used as a listening facility by the DoD.
Alicia, desperate to help her husband, visits the mailbox and retrieves the never-opened "top secret" documents that Nash had delivered there. When confronted with this evidence, Nash is finally convinced that he has been hallucinating. The Department of Defense agent William Parcher and Nash's secret assignment to decode Soviet messages was in fact all a delusion. Even more surprisingly, Nash's "prodigal roommate" Charles and his niece Marcee are also only products of Nash's mind.
After a series of insulin shock therapy sessions, Nash is released on the condition that he agrees to take antipsychotic medication; however, the drugs create negative side-effects that affect his sexual and emotional relationship with his wife and, most dramatically, his intellectual capacity. Frustrated, Nash secretly stops taking his medication and hoards his pills, triggering a relapse of his psychosis.
Caught between the intellectual paralysis of the antipsychotic drugs and his delusions, Nash and Alicia decide to try to live with his abnormal condition. Nash consciously says goodbye to the three delusional characters forever in his attempts to ignore his hallucinations and not feed "his demons". He thanks Charles for being his best friend over the years, and says a tearful goodbye to Marcee, stroking her hair and calling her "baby girl", telling them both he would not speak to them anymore. They still continue to haunt him, with Charles mocking him for cutting off their friendship, but Nash learns to ignore them.
Nash grows older and approaches his old friend and intellectual rival Martin Hansen, now head of the Princeton mathematics department. Hansen allows him to study in the Princeton library and audit courses. Even though Nash still suffers from hallucinations and mentions taking newer medications, he is ultimately able to live with and largely ignore his psychotic episodes. He takes his situation in stride and humorously checks to ensure that any new acquaintances are in fact real people, not hallucinations.
Nash eventually earns the privilege of teaching again. He is honored by his fellow professors for his achievement in mathematics, and goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. Nash and Alicia are about to leave the auditorium in Stockholm, when Nash sees Charles, Marcee and Parcher standing and watching him with blank expressions on their faces. Alicia asks Nash, "What's wrong?" Nash replies, "Nothing. Nothing at all." With that, they both leave the auditorium.
"A Beautiful Mind" was decorated with four Academy Awards including Best Picture. Although the list of awards this film has received is long there has been much debate about whether it deserved the Oscar for Best Picture. Some found the movie intriguing but lacking in depth. Others criticized Howard's selection of Crowe to tackle the method-heavy role of mathematical genius John Nash. I disagree with all criticisms. I find Crowe's performance inspiring and worthy to be placed beside the many actors and actresses who have braved difficult terrain in portraying "genius-type" characters. Harris must have given Crowe a few tips about this particular style of method-acting after his noteworthy portrayals of composer L.V. Beethoven ("Copying Beethoven") and artist Jackson Pollock ("Pollock").
This film is also important in the chronicling of Jennifer Connelly's acting career. I do not believe she's yet made her "big move" into the next echelon of cinematic fame, but with performances like the one she provides in "A Beautiful Mind", we know that great leap is not far in the future.
My Rating: 8/10
Content to Caution:
V-2 – There is some pushing and punching. In one scene John is involved in a car chase in which gunfire is exchanged.
L-2 – No comment.
DU-2 – Drinking and smoking.
RT-0 – No comment.
H/S-2 – No comment.
CH-1 – While comical, John belittles the act of intercourse as he tries to communicate with women.
S/N-1 – Some kissing.
The "Reel Revelation": "Distractions"
Are you the sort of person that gets easily distracted? Perhaps you know of someone with a short attention span who can't ever seem to stay on track or on task. Who is to be blamed for such weak focus? After all, the amount of stimuli we're bombarded with every day is off the scale. If you want to do an experiment, write down a list of all the things you know you do every day. You don't have to be precise, just get down as many tasks, errands, and responsibilities you can think of. Do you think it's possible to go from one task to the next without a particular task not on the list demanding your time and attention? How easily we deviate from the list!
Distractions account for an enormous amount of lost time and wasted energy. While there are some people who are able to multi-task and work on seemingly opposing projects with efficiency, we all struggle with the ability to keep our minds focused on what is at hand, what is most important, and what must be done in the moment. And then there are people like John Nash who (despite of legitimate psychological complications) actually create a world of distraction within their own life. Instead of having a complicated "to-do" list, however, John has created a "to-do" list out of things born of the distraction of his mind. We might not suffer from such extreme cases of hallucination and psychosis but we all know the experience of getting so off-track we feel as if we're in another world. It's when we're on that "other track" or trapped in that "other world" that we potentially lose precious opportunities to be in God's presence, hear his voice, and do his bidding. This is nothing new.
"Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me." But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)
But the sources of distraction are not just temporal as they were in that story when Martha was tied up with housework. Indeed, there are great forces which are not of this world that fight for our attention. Consider this prayer from Psalm 55:
"Give ear to my prayer, O God;
And do not hide Yourself from my supplication.
Give heed to me and answer me;
I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted,
Because of the voice of the enemy,
Because of the pressure of the wicked;
For they bring down trouble upon me
And in anger they bear a grudge against me." (Psalm 55: 1-3)
I think we can agree that any one of those things would probably be enough to send our attention and focus wheeling out of control. How much more will the deceptive voice of Satan (our enemy) cause our lives to stall out as we struggle against grief, worry, fear, and anxiety. In this way we see that John Nash's predicament is not so extreme. Perhaps we've all been in his shoes; wrapped up in a world full of distraction, a world tumbling out of control. Sometimes we stay in that "world" so long that we don't mind being distracted and we hardly notice we're tumbling at all. If you happen to be tumbling right now, do as the Psalmist did: cry out to God, confess your distractions, and hold fast to God's grace. It's then that you will find a place of peace in which you can lay down your troubles, untie your apron, unload your burdens, and sit at the feet of Jesus having no care but to listen to his words of love for you today.
See you Monday - E.T.
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