A Beautiful Mind (2001)
SPOILER
PAGE
What is so fantastic about this film is the way
Howard (with help from Goldsmith) and Crowe create a
world which is as real and palpable as any and then
trash it right before our eyes. When we begin to realize
that Nash might very well be delusional, the whole story
up until that point crumbles in upon us. It becomes
this huge amazing mind-fuck that we never saw coming.
I love how the marketing for this film sells it as a
sort of "Good Will Hunting" mixed with a war espionage
picture. It totally sets you up to be screwed over when
watching it. The guys I watched the film with hated
it. And I know why... They didn't like being mislead
and then duped into watching a truly brilliant and challenging
cerebral film. Your world crumbles 90 minutes into this
film, just like Nash's does. What Crowe and Howard do
here to create this world, and then slowly knock it
down, is amazing.
I love the midsection of the film where we are
trying to figure out if Nash is indeed delusional or
not. You simply do not know until Jennifer Connelly
opens the door to that shed in her backyard. That is
an amazing moment in the film. As mind blowing as when
you find our Norman Bates is killing girls dressed as
his mother or when you discover Bruce Willis is actually
dead in "The Sixth Sense." I hope people don't give
away the plot points in this film. It's too delicious
to spoil.
Granted, the film does lose some steam after we
do know that Nash is indeed schizophrenic. But then
the film becomes this interesting meditation on "What
if someone was crazy and delusional yet so fucking intelligent
that they KNEW that they were crazy and delusional.
The amazing insight into the human brain that is discussed
and dissected here becomes one of the most clever and
unique film themes I've ever experienced.
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