Customer Reviews

A Beautiful Mind

5 star:		(43)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As I usually try to do, I read the book prior to seeing the movie. The book was much clearer than the movie but I thought the movie was very well done.

The movie is about the Nobel Prize winner in economics, John Nash. It stars Jennifer Connelly and Russell Crowe, John Nash is a Princeton student when he develps Schizophrenia. The movie is very accurate in its portrayal of delusions and hallucinations, though it was sometimes confusing - especially the part about whether his roommate really exists.

Both Crowe and Connelly do excellent jobs. The movie goes light on Nash's bi-sexuality, does not go into his having a deadbeat dad, and ignores his relationship with Eleanor Stier. Other than these things, it is pretty true to the book.

Nash does have a beautiful mind. Once he starts losing his mind due to the tragedy of schizophrenia, it is heartwarming to see that he maintains the respect of his Princeton colleagues and students. I applaud this movie for raising peoples' consciousness about schizophrenia.

I highly recommend this movie for anyone who enjoys drama and is interested in mental illness and resilience.

A Beautiful Mind is one of those rare movies that grace the silver screen once in a lifetime and touch our hearts and our minds in ways that other films which have attempted to replicate with similar material, have yet to achieve. For years movie goers have witnessed the world of mental illness and its horrors from an outside perspective, much like visitors to a zoo, observing life in captivity from the other side of the cage. With faithful attention to detail and a respectful compassion for a world not yet understood in its unending complexities director Ron Howard draws the audience into a world of mystery, deception and intrigue, far removing us from our comfort zones. Then, as suddenly as it all began, the rug is ripped out from under our feet, forcing us to accept the fact that a world into which we have been drawn is not always a world that others can see.

This is the basic technique of filmmaking which Ron Howard skillfully exploits throughout the film to powerfully illustrate the emotional and psychological impact of John F. Nash's schizophrenia, a mental illness that is often characterized by disturbing delusions, hallucinations and bizarre thought patterns. As one who has suffered from mental illness for nearly thirty years I personally recommend this film not merely for its intellectual and artistic delivery of the subject matter but primarily for its overall sensitivity to an issue that has remained a subject of personal controversy in many circles of conversation, even in a century revolutionized by constant scientific discoveries and the evolutionary restructuring of psychiatric treatment.

John Forbes Nash has the ability to see patterns in math and nature that are ordinarily overlooked. He presumably is pressed into using his ability for the government. Alicia comes into his world and as with many great loves; she sees what others call weird, as a cute uniqueness. We follow their courtship and then life together.

It is the little things and the interaction among friends that make the movie. This movie captures your attention from the beginning. You may be able to anticipate what is happening however it is not meant to be a dark secret with a twist ending as much as letting you in on what he is going through to survive. All the characters are fleshed out and you feel that you are there. This movie leaves a good after taste.

I saw this movie when I was working at a mental hospital. I helped me to understand what schizophrenia might be like to some people. If you want to know about that watch this and do not learn to much about the movie it will reck it. Just know that this is very well done and respectfully done. It is based on a true story, but not a documentary. The acting is excellent. If you want to understand more watch this. It is a beautiful movie.

An excellent overview of the struggles and tortuous life of a schizophrenic. It brings to the attention of the public the pain and suffering both of the person who is mentally ill, and the caregiver.The movie is excellent.

In a day and age where many movies are simply fluff, this movie has shone beyond many others in being profound, moving, and overall a powerful story. It gives us a great survey of complex human emotions, mental illness, perseverance, love and ambition.

The character development is wonderful. Paul Bettany is simply FANTASTIC here. Particularly vivid in this film is the portrait of a genius gone schizophrenic (Russel Crowe) and a loving wife who is at her wits end but still responds in a loving and caring way (Jennifer Connelly).

The setting of this film, being Princeton, adds to the overall esthetics of the film. The scenery is simply marvelous!

I highly recommend this movie!!

This film was just flat out enticing. I have watched it over and over again, and it never seems to lose its value. Crowe is a great actor, and pulls off his role with perfection. This is one of my most favorite movies ever, and is one of the very few that ever made me tear up. Some may find the beginning to be a little slow, but after about twenty minutes of watching, you'll be hooked. Don't miss this one!!!

I first saw this movie about five years ago. My wife had asked me to go see it with her. After we watched, I said to her, `I don't know how to tell you this, but I got to tell you something, and it is kinda hard to say." She said, "Go ahead, honey." So I said to her, "I don't know what that stuff is that Crowe has in that movie......" She says, "go on." "But I have it, too." She then says, "Well, we got to get you some help." The next day she tells me the soonest a psychiatrist can see me is in a month and a half. I tell her that I can't last that long. I need to see someone right away. A psychiatrist tells her to take me to the nearest ER room at a hospital.

Sitting in front of the ER doctor at a large hospital in the Denver suburbs, the doctor asks me, "So what's bothering you?" I tell him, "Oh, nothing really." (I'm afraid they are going to lock me up forever.) My wife across the little room says, "You have to tell him everything, to get help." So I proceed to tell him, "I'm hearing voices which are telling me to do terrible things. They are loud command voices, they don't stop, and I can't deal with it anymore. They say people in the neighborhood are plotting to kill me and my family."

He says, "Oh, you must have a microchip in the back of your head."

I exclaim back, "No, no, that's not possible! I never had a chip operation... I have a tooth. It's in the back of my mouth. It has a large filling in it. I got it when I was 15. The dentist put two pins in it, and the pins act like a harmonic receiver for a satellite in the sky." Then I paused again and looked over at my wife, and she said, "You got to keep going." I continued, "They are sending the voices to me through this tooth, and they can hear what I am saying when I speak. I am part of a super-secret military project, and they're communicating with me. For future one-man missions."

The doctor then left, and came back a few minutes later with two armed hospital guards. He read me my rights, and informed me that the state of Colorado allows him to put me on a 3-day involuntary commitment to get me medication and counseling. I was ready to jump right out of there, but my wife said, "They are going to help you, but you have to let them." So I went along with them to the psych ward of that general hospital, and they helped me by giving me a 10mg dose of tongue dissolvable Zyprexa, and I slept for about 19 hours. When I woke up, they let me talk to the doctor and some counselors. The medication gave me a clear brain, and stopped the voices and delusions. They released me to my wife that day (the day after admitting me). My wife was an angel.

This movie, that "3-day commitment", and the doctors & nurses with the meds are some of the best things that have every happened in my life. This movie gave me the courage to seek help. It is hard to take the news that I was not part of a special super-secret military project for 19 years. But instead I have a serious, chronic, incurable, brain disease. But that's life, that's my life. I now accept the fact that I have the brain disorder known as schizoaffective. It reminds me of the movie, "Predator". And it terrifies me.

Other people here have commented that the film does not portray the actual life of John Nash. Well, maybe it's because the real story of schizophrenia is too depressing for people to want to pay money to see. There simply is no pretty Hollywood ending to our story. And besides, Hollywood has skewed other films in the past that were supposedly about the life of a real person.

One that comes to mind so unnervingly is the movie, "Emily Rose." Talk about a farce! Oh, this movie was "INSPIRED BY" the life of Emily Rose. And then two consultants to the film with the title of Msr. in front of their names (this stands for Catholic monsignor priest) proceeded to make a girl's paranoid manic psychotic episode look like demon possession. That was cute. And what a cruel joke it is to all of us who suffer from psychotic brain disease (about 8 million US people - paranoid schizophrenia, psychotic bipolar I, psychotic depression & post-partum depression).

I can hardly wait until the researchers find a cure for this illness. Hopefully within the next 20 to 30 years. I hope and pray for this everyday. I'm sure John does, too. For the sake of our children.

You won't hear from many people with psychotic based-illness. It is simply too horrific to talk about. You can take my word for it. I say this because you all have paid a lot of money to send me to some of the world's best schools. Schools which uniquely teach soldiers how to look fear in its face, to confront it, and then to walk right through it. As I have posted before, and in spite of this myriad of specialized training, it still terrifies me to talk about this disease like I am doing now, and it takes a terrible toll.

To everyone who had a part in making this film, thank you. Thank you for saving my life, literally. I really appreciate that. So do my wife and two children. And thank you, John, for telling your story. You have helped us all. You will never know how much, because we simply cannot talk about it. As you already know.

As a person living with mental illness, I would recommend the movie "A Beautiful Mind". The film was about a man's ascension in the mathematical community, descent into his own world of paranoid schizophrenia, and ultimate heroic accomplishments while accepting his symptoms and being able to disengage himself from his delusions and hallucinations. John Nash, the movies' main character, proves he is sophisticated as well as a brave man in his quest to overcome his symptoms of mental illness while struggling to make a name for himself among collegiate peers that were considered the elite of this country's great minds. This movie also demonstrated a historical perspective in respect to therapeutic measures of the past treatment of schizophrenia. The family structure demonstrated in the movie provided an accurate and sophisticated viewpoint of how families of the time period possessed ways and means for recovery. The role of the professional in regards to the psychiatrist provided insight into symptoms associated with schizophrenia in relation to educating both patient and their families. In conclusion, John Nash proved through his Beautiful Mind, that a person living with schizophrenia does not have to settle with the struggles of daily hallucinations and proved that he could achieve amongst the highest nobility of men.

Una de las mejores peliculas que he visto!
Nos presenta la vida de una persona extremadamente inteligente, que padece de una enfermedade mental. Se ve por todo lo que tiene que pasar atravez de su vida, y como afecta no solo a el sino tambien a los que lo rodean.