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A Beautiful Mind [DVD] [2002]
enlarge	Director: Ron Howard Actor: Russell Crowe\|Ed Harris\|Jennifer Connelly Studio: Dreamworks Home Entertainment Category: DVD List Price: ~~£24.99~~ Buy New: £3.80 as of 25/11/2009 03:56 GMT details You Save: £21.19 (85%) New (23) Used (14) Collectible (1) from £2.24 Seller: howdino2110 Rating: 43 reviews Sales Rank: 11252 Format: Anamorphic, Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen Languages: English (Subtitles For The Hearing Impaired), English (Subtitled), English (Original Language) Rating: Suitable for 12 years and over Region: 2 Discs: 2 Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Number Of Discs: 2 Running Time: 135 Minutes Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2 Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6 UPC: 667068832297 EAN: 0667068832297 ASIN: B000062V9A Theatrical Release Date: January 4, 2002 Release Date: October 7, 2002 Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days


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Editorial Reviews: Amazon.co.uk Review IA Beautiful Mind/I is an award-winning movie if ever there was one. This biopic of mathematician John Forbes Nash is two parts IShine/I to one part IGood Will Hunting/I. Scripted by Akiva Goldsman (ILost in Space/I) and directed by Ron Howard (IThe Grinch/I)--both trying to get sincere and serious after previous movies--it showcases a big, compelling performance from Russell Crowe as a genius whose eccentricities turn out to be down to a genuine mental illness. Though his early work as a student offered a breakthrough that eventually won him the 1994 Nobel Prize, Nash goes off the deep end in later life. p The film works better in the early paranoid stretches--which include a wonderful 1950s spy movie parody as Nash is sucked into an imagined world of fighting commie atom spies--than it does with the inspirational ending, where Nash's handicaps are overcome so he can triumph at the end. Crowe's genuinely fine work still seems a bit IShine/Rain Man/Forrest Gump/I-ish in mannerism, yet experience shows this can be a powerful career move. Crowe gains sterling support from Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany and Christopher Plummer--some playing a mere character in Nash's world. --IKim Newman/I

Customer Reviews: Showing reviews 1-5 of 43 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next » Beautiful acting! September 30, 2004 robojam 20 out of 20 found this review helpful If you asked me before I had seen this film if I thought Russell Crowe was capable of acting this role, I would have had serious doubts. Now that I have seen it, I can only say that Russell Crowe's portrayal of John Nash is one of the most deserving of an Oscar that I have ever seen!pThe film is based on the life of John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who struggled with mental illness for much of his life. There is a large injection of fiction into the story, but it is done in a way that is wholly believable. As usual, Hollywood insists on adding a love story, but this one is not too sugary, and the excellent performance of Jennifer Connelly makes this a very moving film, with an ending that you spend the whole film hoping for.pCrowe's performance is so believable, especially when he is in the depths of his illness. The rest of the supporting cast do a fine job too, and Ron Howard's direction is the right balance of seeing the illness both from the inside and the outside.pA five star performance from Crowe! Beautiful Film for a Beautiful Mind August 7, 2005 B. Duckworth (Liverpool, England) 16 out of 16 found this review helpful I first saw the film, not at the cinema, but when my parent's rented the DVD. My mother, at the time studying for a nursing degree, was encouraged to watch the film by one of her tutors, who apparently told her it was an "excellent portrayal of a schizophrenic mind". I think this is testimony to the skill with which Crowe, especially, plays brilliant but troubled mathematician John Nash.pThe film garnered four Academy Awards, and, had it not been for the competition from the first of the Lord of the Rings films, this number would almost certainly have been larger. In particular, there is conjecture that Crowe's notorious bad-temper at an earlier ceremony cost him his award for best actor in a leading role. In my view, his portrayal of John Nash deserved the award, rather than Denzel Washington's appearance as a corrupt Narcotics cop in Training Day. Certainly, Crowe was spot on with the mannerisms and temperament of a schizophrenia sufferer, playing the part with a tension of volatility with was felt throughout the film.pHoward's direction was, as we have come to expect, wonderful. Indeed, it won him an Academy Award, a surprise, as many critics had tipped Peter Jackson to storm to victory that year. Howard draws brilliant performances from each of the cast, and, despite the dream-like nature of many of the sequences in the film, there's an almost heightened sense of realism.pThere isn't a poor performance to pick. Each supporting actor and actress gives a smashing account of themselves. The sinister government agent in black suit and hat, who's name eludes me right now, is brilliant throughout. Nash's loyal colleague's Sol and Bender put in laudable shows. Admittedly, there's not much strenuous acting to be done, but they do whatever they have to do, and they do it well. However, one actress stands out - and for this she was awarded an Oscar for best actress in a supporting role. She gives a truly believable show as Alicia, Nash's wife, and, while it is difficult to see why she would want to marry Nash in the first place, her performance as the suffering but loyal friend is excellent. The connection between the two is brilliant and, at times, tear-inducing - a quality which I very much admire in a film.pThere has been some criticism for screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, for his depiction of Nash. It is true, that much of the more controversial points of Nash's life are omitted from the film (Nash's illegitmate child with another woman, cheating on his wife, being just one example) but the aim of the film, rather than being a biopic, is to demonstrate the strength of the human spirit. A Beautiful Mind shows that though Nash suffered from obstructive personality problems, and eventually mental illness, he was still an inspired thinker who won a Nobel Prize, and he still had a loving wife and son. Goldsman isn't trying to hide the bad aspects of Nash's character, they just don't contribute to the film's theme.pWhat's more, this film has an effect on the watcher. It does inspire and uplift. It shows us the strength and determination of some people to succeed. And it shows us how love is ultimately the driving force behind everything good that happens in the world.pI think, for this reason, A Beautiful Mind deserves all of the praise it gets, and if I had my way, it would get more.pFurthermore, it deserves five stars in this review. Buy it. Just See This Film November 5, 2002 23 out of 24 found this review helpful There's nothing that quite stirs the soul more than a true life story of courage, tragedy and love. In this film director Ron Howards puts to screen the story of Professor John Nash (Russell Crowe), a genius mathematician who with the help of his wife (Jennifer Connelly) overcomes his mental illness.pI did have doubts about the film when I first sat down to watch it, I thought it was going to be lots of tears followed by lots of friendly hugging, but Howard has directed a film that is well balanced letting the viewer have sympathy with Nash but also learn about mental illness in a scoiety that still struggles to fully understand what people like him are going through. Howard sets these questions while never getting too heavy into the politics and instead concentrates on the struggles of the characters involved.pThe performances by all involved are truly stunning, Crowe plays Nash with a particular shyness which develops throughout the film from his days of graduation, to his (supposed) working life and then finally to his struggle to cope with his mental illness. Connelly plays a character that is equally as tormented as Nash, and who like him has to defend the love she really feels for him as both characters show similar courage.pIt would be wrong to discuss Nash's mental illness without ruining half of the film, if you do not know what it is about then you would be surprised by the turn of events as Howard cleverly tricks the audience. However, this is not just a one time watch, whenever I have sat down to watch the film I have noticed small touches here and there. Though my favourite part of the film is towards the end when Nash day by day struggles to cope, the character development is superb and it is scandalous that Crowe was not awarded an Oscar for this performance, because in all honesty I don't think he will ever have a better performance as he did as Professor John Nash. Excellent Hollywood-ized version of the man and his madness May 7, 2006 Dennis Littrell (SoCal) 10 out of 10 found this review helpful This resulted in four well-deserved Academy Awards in 2002: Best Picture for Brian Grazer and the people at Imagine Entertainment, Ron Howard for his direction, Jennifer Connelly for her supporting role, and Akive Goldsman for his script adapted from Sylvia Nasar's biography. It is a beautiful and touching movie, uplifting and full of a lot of things that Hollywood does very well. br / br /Russell Crowe is believable as the arrogant yet vulnerable mathematician John Nash who fell into paranoid schizophrenia while an undergraduate at Princeton University. A philandering and selfish man who is paradoxically almost as lovable as Albert Einstein, Nash can also be humble and exhibit a wry, self-effacing sense of humor. To me he is a great hero, not because of his work in Game Theory for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, but because he is one of the very few people ever to conquer, as it were, schizophrenia. br / br /In the outstanding documentary from The American Experience PBS series, "A Brilliant Madness" (2002) Nash explains how he did it: he just stopped listening to the voices. The voices that the paranoid schizophrenic hears are inside his head and they are amazingly persuasive; the delusions are as compelling as monstrous personages come to life, vivid, demanding, in many ways more "real" than the reality we normally experience. So it really was heroic of John Nash to come to grips with his delusions and to mentally shove them aside. The vast majority of paranoid schizophrenics can never do that. br / br /Yet the movie merely resembles his life and his singular experience. Goldsman's script and Howard's direction take the life of John Nash and distill the essence of his triumph while brushing aside many of the unpleasant and non-heroic details. I don't object to this because this movie is clearly aimed at the widest possible audience, and I appreciate the wisdom of that approach. But for those of you interested in a more comprehensive and objective picture of the man I can recommend both the documentary mentioned above and Nasar's biography. I especially found it valuable to view the one-hour documentary because to actually see the man and to hear him speak allowed me to better appreciate the fine performance by Russell Crowe. br / br /I found Jennifer Connelly absolutely mesmerizing as Alicia (not to mention gorgeous). Ed Harris was a hardcore graphic nightmare as the unrelenting Parcher while Paul Bettany was intriguing and clever as Nash's nonexistent buddy. Howard's direction not only got excellent work from everybody, but he was able to bring the pathos and exhilaration of Nash's life to the audience in a very satisfying way emotionally. If you can watch this without shedding a tear or two you may want to check your synaptic connections. Incidentally the makeup work on Crowe and Connelly to allow us the illusion of the passing years was outstanding (and got an Oscar nomination). br / br /The key to the movie and to Howard's vision is the way that the real world and the Nash's delusional world are meshed. It's clear he wanted to compel the audience to share the paranoid schizophrenic experience. While not a paranoid schizophrenic myself I have known people who are, and I have had similar, limited experiences myself under certain, shall we say, circumstances. The sheer terror that can sometimes be felt came through in the car chase scene (yes, Howard managed to get one in) while Nash's obsessive energy was revealed on the walls of the rooms that he had completely covered with pages from magazines that he had frantically searched looking for secret Soviet codes. br / br /Some quibbles: while undergraduates loved beer then as they do now, they did not in 1946 go out for pizza, and if they had they would have called it "pizza pie." There were no pizza parlors and no pizza at the market. If you went to an Italian restaurant you had spaghetti or ravioli, and the pizza that was served was mostly bread with a thin topping of cheese and sauce, nothing like the great thin platters we have today. br / br /New Zealander Russell Crowe's West Virginia accent faded in some scenes only to return strong in another. br / br /Also, no mention in the movie is made of Nash's homosexual experiences nor of his running away to Europe or his desire to renounce his US citizenship. I understand that Howard decided to leave out the homosexual angle because associating homosexuality with schizophrenia would open a can of worms that would detract from the theme of the movie. Also left out was Nash's other paternity with a woman he never married. br / br /Nash is not a saint, but he is a hero, and this beautiful movie is a fine tribute to him and his accomplishments. A beautiful masterpiece! December 3, 2004 EvaMatrix (Norway) 7 out of 7 found this review helpful This is Russel Crowe's best work to date. He truely deserved the Oscar he did not receive for this role. Crowe does a remarkable job in becoming this unusually intelligent, intense, fragile and troubled character with such a brilliant mind, John Nash. The film follows the life of Mr Nash, culminating in him receiving the Noble Price in Economics for his theories. The film gives true insight into the mind and struggle of a disturbed person from the person's own perspective. It also paints out the high demands to, and patience, hope and determination required from the people and institutions around this person. Even in its darkest moments, the film is littered with love as well as hope. In addition, the film is brilliant in its switching between Mr Nash's world and the people in it, and the 'real' world as seen by everyone else. Due to the fantastic production of the film, the two worlds work beautifully together. Set in beautiful sourroundings and made with state of the art film technology and special effects the film lays out an astonishing story of the human brilliance, friendship, love, trouble, defeat, depression, hope, adjustment and outstanding achievements. The film is emotional on many levels, you will reflect over the content of it for days and weeks to come. You definately learn more about life watching it, it distrubs your heart and moves your soul. You see the world with new eyes when the film is finished. Please enjoy this beautiful masterpiece. Showing reviews 1-5 of 43 1 2 3 4 5 6 ...9 Next »

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