A Beautiful Mind is a 2001 American biographical drama film based on the life of John Nash, a Nobel Laureate in Economics. The film was inspired by a bestselling, Pulitzer Prize-nominated 1998 book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar. It was directed by Ron Howard, from a screenplay written by Akiva Goldsman. The film stars Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas, Anthony Rapp, and Christopher Plummer.
The film was released on December 21, 2001. It won four Academy Awards, for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actress. It was also nominated for Best Actor, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Best Original Score.
Plot[]
A human drama inspired by events in the life of John Forbes Nash Jr. (Russell Crowe), and in part based on the biography "A Beautiful Mind" by Sylvia Nasar. From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery.
Cast[]
- Russell Crowe as John Nash
- Ed Harris as William Parcher
- Jennifer Connelly as Alicia Nash
- Paul Bettany as Charles Herman
- Josh Lucas as Martin Hansen
- Adam Goldberg as Richard Sol
- Anthony Rapp as Bender
- Vivien Cardone as Marcee
- Christopher Plummer as Dr. Rosen
- Judd Hirsch as Helinger
- Jason Gray-Stanford as Ainsley Neilson
Critical reception[]
Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes polled 205 critics and gave the film a 76% approval rating, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critical consensus states, "The well-acted A Beautiful Mind is both a moving love story and a revealing look at mental illness." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 72 out of 100, based on 33 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four out of four stars. Mike Clark of USA Today gave three-and-a-half out of four stars and also praised Crowe's performance, calling it a welcome follow-up to Howard's previous film, The Grinch. Desson Thomson of Washington Post found the film to be "one of those formulaically rendered Important Subject movies". The mathematics community praised the portrayal of mathematics in the film, including John Nash himself.
Box office[]
During the five-day weekend of the limited release, A Beautiful Mind opened at the #12 spot at the box office, peaking at the #2 spot following the wide release. The film went on to gross $170,742,341 in the United States and Canada and $313,542,341 worldwide