A Beautiful Mind

Story

A Beautiful Mind manages to twist enough pathos out of John Nash's incredible life story to redeem an at-times goofy portrayal of schizophrenia. Russell Crowe tackles the role with characteristic fervor, playing the Nobel prize-winning mathematician from his days at Princeton, where he developed a groundbreaking economic theory, to his meteoric rise to the cover of Forbes magazine and an MIT professorship, and on through to his eventual dismissal due to schizophrenic delusions. Of course, it is the delusions that fascinate director Ron Howard and, predictably, go astray. Nash's other world, populated as it is by a maniacal Department of Defense agent (Ed Harris), an imagined college roommate who seems straight out of Dead Poets Society, and an orphaned girl, is so fluid and scriptlike as to make the viewer wonder if schizophrenia is really as slick as depicted. Crowe's physical intensity drags us along as he works admirably to carry the film on his considerable shoulders. No doubt the story of Nash's amazing will to recover his life without the aid of medication is a worthy one, his eventual triumph heartening. Unfortunately, Howard's flashy style is unable to convey much of it. --Fionn Meade

DVD Features

• Available Subtitles: Spanish, French
  
• Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), French (Dolby Digital 5.1)
  
• Commentary by: director Ron Howard
  
• Commentary by: screenwriter Akiva Goldsman
  
• Disc 1:
  
• Feature film
  
• Deleted scenes - with optional director's commentary
  
• Disc 2:
  
• A Beautiful Partnership: Ron Howard and Brian Grazer
  
• Development of the Screenplay
  
• Meeting John Nash - The Nash Theory of Equilibrium
  
• "Accepting the Nobel Prize in Economics"
  
• "The Process of Age Progression"
  
• Storyboards to final feature comparison
  
• Creation of special effects
  
• Scoring the film
  
• Inside A Beautiful Mind
  
• Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Adapted Screenplay
  
• A Beautiful Mind soundtrack

Cast

Russell Crowe	John Nash
Ed Harris	Parcher
Jennifer Connelly	Alicia Nash
Christopher Plummer	Dr. Rosen
Paul Bettany	Charles
Adam Goldberg	Sol
Josh Lucas	Hansen
Anthony Rapp	Bender
Jason Gray-Stanford	Ainsley
Judd Hirsch	Helinger
Austin Pendleton	Thomas King
Vivien Cardone	Marcee
Jillie Simon	Bar Co-Ed (as Jill M. Simon)
Victor Steinbach	Professor 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
Rance Howard	White-Haired Patient
Jane Jenkins	Code-Red Nurse (as JJ Chaback)
Darius Stone	Adjunct
Josh Pais	Princeton Professor
Alex Toma	Toby
Valentina Cardinalli	Joyce
Teagle F. Bougere	Young Professor
David B. Allen	John Nash Jr. - Teenager
Michael Esper	John Nash Jr. - Young Man
Eva Burkley	Girl at Bar (as Catharina Eva Burkley)
Amy Walz	Blond in Bar
Tracey Toomey	Brunette
Jennifer Weedon	Brunette
Yvonne Thomas	Brunette
Holly Pitrago	Brunette
Isadore Rosenfeld	Pen Ceremony Professor
Tommy Allen	Pen Ceremony Professor (as Thomas C. Allen)
Dave Bayer	Pen Ceremony Professor
Brian Keith Lewis	Pen Ceremony Professor
Tom McNutt	Pen Ceremony Professor
Will Dunham	Pen Ceremony Professor
Glenn Roberts	Pen Ceremony Professor
Ed Jupp Jr.	Pen Ceremony Professor (as Ed Jupp)