A Beautiful Mind

It takes an idle mind and a jobless weekend to ponder upon and conclude , but movies are much like people . There are those whom you meet and just instantly get along with very well, there are those whom you hate from the first meet , some just plain boring you wouldn't want to meet a 2nd time and I can continue to bore you listing out all possibilities .

The point that i am coming to however is that, every now and then you meet people who don't win your attention the 1st time , but something about them hits you and you want to know more about them. Eventually something about their character just sucks your interest towards them, A Beautiful Mind is one such movie for me .

I remember the 1st time i saw this movie, or rather made an attempt. It was during my 10th class sometime and our class topper and probably the only nerd in our class back then decided on this movie on a lazy afternoon for what was then , the newly started computer movie matinees . The seemingly slow pace and boring tone got to me and i couldn't sit through more than 30 mins . But there was one striking quality about the movie or may be two actually that got registered some where in the subconscious. The movie was about smart people , nerds,geniuses and there was some honesty about Russel Crowe's acting .

I don't clearly remember when again , but i did watch this movie again. It wasn't like i was floored, to be honest i dont think i understood the movie entirely . The main thing that was left with me after the movie was Russel crowes mind blowing acting and the character of John Nash himself . The story itself was enough to make you google about John Nash. It was only during the 2nd or 3rd viewing that the genius of Ron Howard hit me . One of the classic exclamations in movie land is that oh fuck it was there all this while but i dint notice it kinda feeling . You expect it from suspense dramas, action flicks may be the sherlock holmes types . But here was this biographic drama which has tons of such moments . That was when you get totally sucked into the brilliance of its writing, its camera work ,its screen play and most importantly its dialogues .

The toughest part of making a movie about someone who hallucinates(in John Nashs case however it was more than hallucinating) is the dialogues . There is this imaginary character , what would he talk, when would he come, why would he come and more importantly how can i shield their secret from the audience . This is where the genius of the writers is on full display in A Beautiful Mind .

Spoilers Ahead
1) John Nash was never a social kid, not a choice he made but his genius and his focus made him a weird guy to hang out with . Over the years Nash seemingly had learned to live with this fact , the made peace with himself, or he thought he did . This lack but want of social acceptance manifests itself in the form of an imaginary roommate. Now you hardly notice during the movie(at least 1st time around) . How the character never mingles with others , oblivious in a way to the rest. Repear viewing also brings to forth the beauty of the dialogues of this character, that how , now that you know he is in Nash's mind, How he speaks what Nash would have liked to say

2)Nash likes being in an eclectic club, he is the kind of guy in a class who prides in knowing something the rest don't. This need of his might come across as the most immature of his other needs but again to me just follows from the need to be socially accepted . Nash's mind fulfills this need by creating another character, that of a top secret FBI agent who is working with Nash to save the US from a russian nuclear war . See Nash enjoys being part of such a group, he likes being the guardian of secret . His need to be part of unique group can also be seen in his urge to come up with some unique one of a kind idea as part of his thesis while the rest of his class has already published papers on what according to him is mundane

Apart from giving you the pleasure of deciphering the dialogues and situations of these imaginary characters, which is jolly fun i must admit, the movie also showcases one of the bravest fights in human history, one against himself and this is where Russel Crowe puts in flesh and blood into the character . What happens when you turn the most powerful brain of its times against itself. Will it survive? Will it explode? Can it gain anything without cutting its arms ? You cant help but empathize with Nash during this part of the movie and one should thank Crowe to transporting the audience to the world of Nash, to make you root for him, to want him to come over this predicament.

Enough said, watch the movie for all the good reasons. But watch it again to dig out the actual good reasons