A Beautiful Mind [WS]

Director: Ron Howard Ron Howard

Overview

The true story of prominent mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr. is the subject of this biographical drama from director Ron Howard. Russell Crowe stars as the brilliant but arrogant and conceited professor Nash. The prof seems guaranteed a rosy future in the early '50s after he marries beautiful student Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) and makes a remarkable advancement in the foundations of "game theory," which carries him to the brink of international acclaim. Soon after, John is visited by Agent William Parcher (Ed Harris), from the CIA, who wants to recruit him for code-breaking activities. But evidence suggests that Nash's perceptions of reality are cloudy at best; he is struggling to maintain his tenuous hold on sanity, and Alicia suspects a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Battling decades of illness with the loyal Alicia by his side, Nash is ultimately able to gain some control over his mental state, and eventually goes on to triumphantly win the Nobel Prize. Based loosely on the book of the same name by Sylvia Nasar, A Beautiful Mind (2001) co-stars Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Christopher Plummer, and Judd Hirsch.

Product Details

Release Date:	08/22/2006
UPC:	0025193026521
Original Release:	2001
Rating:	PG-13
Source:	UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	2:16:00
Sales rank:	4,343

Special Features

Feature commentary with director Ron Howard; Feature commentary with screenwriter Akiva Goldsman; Deleted scenes with director's commentary; Production notes; Cast and filmmakers

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Russell Crowe	John Nash
Jennifer Connelly	Alicia Nash
Ed Harris	William Parcher
¿¿¿ ¿¿¿¿¿¿¿	Charles Herman
Josh Lucas	Martin Hansen
Adam Goldberg	Richard Sol
Anthony Rapp	Bender
Judd Hirsch	Helinger
Jason Gray-Stanford	Ainsley Neilson
Austin Pendleton	Thomas King
Vivien Cardone	Marcee
Jillie Simon	Bar Co-Ed
Victor Steinbach	Prof. Horner
Tanya Clarke	Becky
Thomas F. Walsh	Captain
Jesse Doran	General
Kent Cassella	Analyst
Patrick Blindauer	MIT Student
John Blaylock	Photographer
Roy Thinnes	Governor
Anthony Easton	Young Man
Cheryl Howard	Harvard Administrator,White-Haired Patient,Student at Harvard University
Josh Pais	Princeton Professor
David B. Allen	John Nash Teenager
Michael Esper	John Nash Young Man
Erik Van Wyck	Princeton Student
Jane Jenkins	Code-Red Nurse
Darius Stone	Adjunct
Valentina Cardinalli	Joyce
Teagle F. Bougere	Young Professor
Amy Walz	Blond in Bar
Tracey Toomey	Brunette
Jennifer Weedon	Brunette
Yvonne Thomas	Brunette
Holly Pitrago	Brunette
Isadore Rosenfeld	Pen Ceremony Professor
Tom McNutt	Pen Ceremony Professor
Alex Toma	Toby
Ryan O'Connor	Princeton Student
James Horner	Composer

Technical Credits

Ron Howard	Director,Producer
Brian Grazer	Producer
Kathleen McGill	Producer
Maureen Peyrot	Producer
Karen Kehela	Executive Producer
Todd Hallowell	Executive Producer
Louisa Velis	Executive Producer
Harry Peck Bolles	Sound Effects
Eytan Mirsky	Sound Effects
Daniel Pagan	Sound Effects

Editorial Reviews

A skillful adaptation of a real-life story by director Ron Howard, who matures beyond the facile emotions and obviousness inherent to most of his previous work, embracing a new level of maturity that is a welcome compliment to his clear, if workmanlike visual style. Howard has always been a reliable film craftsman, efficiently translating words into pictures even if his compositions have remained more functional than creative. It's a curse endemic to those who made their bones in television, including Howard's contemporaries Garry Marshall and Penny Marshall. Despite two successful decades on the A-list, they have few major-league peers with such a lack of distinguishable artistic signatures. Without skipping a beat, Howard has moved effortlessly from the rapid-fire compactness of Apollo 13 (1995) to the bloated, sugary, over-the-top razzle-dazzle of the almost unforgivably heinous How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000). So equated is he with a glossy, marketable broadness that the sheer elegance and subtlety of his approach to this largely internal story is astonishing. It's a quantum leap forward that would be comparable to the achievement of Steven Spielberg with Schindler's List (1995), if not for the difference in emotional, physical, and historical scale. Always a demanding, exacting actor, Russell Crowe continues a winning streak by delivering the latest in a series of knockout performances, adroitly handled by a director who seems simpatico with his every choice. The film's structural gimmick turns in on itself halfway through, challenging the viewer to observe every previous and subsequent event through the eyes of paranoia, a brilliant twist that works beautifully, even better so because it is never hammered indelicately home by the filmmaker. A Beautiful Mind (2001) is a serious, fully realized story gracefully handled by Howard, proving that an artist never stops evolving no matter how accomplished his resumé.