‎A Beautiful Mind (2001) directed by Ron Howard • Reviews, film + cast • Letterboxd

A Beautiful Mind

2001 Directed by Ron Howard

I need to believe that something extra ordinary is possible...

At Princeton University, John Nash struggles to make a worthwhile contribution to serve as his legacy to the world of mathematics. He finally makes a revolutionary breakthrough that will eventually earn him the Nobel Prize. After graduate school he turns to teaching, becoming romantically involved with his student Alicia. Meanwhile the government asks his help with breaking Soviet codes, which soon gets him involved in a terrifying conspiracy plot. Nash grows more and more paranoid until a discovery that turns his entire world upside down. Now it is only with Alicia's help that he will be able to recover his mental strength and regain his status as the great mathematician we know him as today..

Russell Crowe Ed Harris Jennifer Connelly Christopher Plummer Paul Bettany Adam Goldberg Josh Lucas Anthony Rapp Jason Gray-Stanford Judd Hirsch Austin Pendleton Vivien Cardone Jillie Simon Victor Steinbach Tanya Clarke Thomas F. Walsh Jesse Doran Kent Cassella Patrick Blindauer John Blaylock Roy Thinnes Anthony Easton Cheryl Howard Josh Pais David B. Allen Michael Esper Erik Van Wyck Rance Howard Jane Jenkins Show All…

135 mins More details at IMDb TMDb Report this film

Popular reviews

Review by CinemaClown ★★★★

Winner of 4 Academy Awards including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is an expertly crafted biopic based on the life of schizophrenic mathematician John Nash & covers his struggle with his condition. Although the artistic license taken here makes it far more cinematic than required, the film nonetheless succeeds as a touching, entertaining & satisfying experience.

Based on the novel of the same name, the story of A Beautiful Mind begins in 1947 when the young John Nash arrives at Princeton University. Eccentric but brilliant, Nash graduates with flying colours, is hired by MIT but begins exhibiting troubling symptoms of a mental illness which in the long run affects not only his personal & professional life but also those around him.

Directed by…
Review by truman segal ★★★★ 3

ugh, his mind
Review by ScreeningNotes ★★★★ 4

This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

"So what am I now, a spy?"

Not only did I manage not to have this movie spoiled for me, but despite it being a favorite of my father's and girlfriend's I managed to block out the knowledge that there was even anything to spoil about it. Before the movie started my dad even said something along the lines of, "It's never the same as the first time you see it." Thank you, brain, for selectively understanding the world around me.

There's a section of this movie which is absolutely terrifying to me, more than any horror movie I've ever seen. A Beautiful Mind plays out the idea that you can't think your way out of mental illness. There's a…
Review by Scott Anderson ★★★½ 5

I find the concept of expectations and whether or not they are met to be fascinating, especially in regards to film criticism. Last night I finally saw the 2002 Best Picture winner A Beautiful Mind for the first time, a mere 12 years after its release, and without a doubt it is a very good film, one that was elevated to that level through pretty great performances throughout but especially from the two leads. Russell Crowe is John Forbes Nash Jr. and Jennifer Connelly is Alicia, a student in his class that stuns Nash not just with her beauty but also the bold move she makes to solve a noise/temperature problem on his first day as her teacher. I truly…
Review by Dave ★★★★

Before "Noah" came along, Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly owned this highly entertaining drama about the life of John Nash. Rather than play it like a straight biopic, Ron Howard chose to go inside Nash’s schizophrenic mind, and the results are dazzling.

Crowe, disappearing once again, adds another enigmatic role to his roster of great performances. He should have won Oscars for "The Insider" and this film, not for "Gladiator," but I digress. He's easily one of our best actors-slash-movie stars in the business.

And Jennifer Connelly? Well, dammit, she can do no wrong, can she?
Review by Andy Summers ★★★½

A Beautiful Mind won the Best Picture Academy Award back in 2002, and although an engrossing and well made biopic, it robbed The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring of a well deserved Oscar. Russell Crowe's performance as mathematician John Nash is another of those incredible transformations from the Wellington born actor, who could well have bagged another statuette to add to his gong for Gladiator. The mercurial Ron Howard directs with gusto, but for a biopic, this take on Nash's life has more than a few dramatic liberties taken with some of the more important aspects of his life-story. So he was a genius, a paranoid schizophrenic, and prone to delusions, but he was good at…

Recent reviews

Review by Maikulole ★★★★

The social awkwardness hurts me
Review by Matt the Great ★★★★★

Maybe it’s not a perfect movie.....but it’s a perfect movie.

Dr. Rosen: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?

The scene where he’s given the pens gets to me everytime.
Review by Calder Frattaroli ★★★★½

Soooooo much better than I remembered!!!
Review by Dylan Majerus ★★★½

"A Beautiful Mind" tells the story of John Nash, an incredibly brilliant mathematician who knew more than just numbers, or the infinite Nash Equilibrium he would be soon most remembered for. What "A Beautiful Mind" introduces is not Nash's intelligence but how his mental illness tragically affected himself and those around him.

A brainiac could be defined as one who is exceptionally smart and obtains stellar memorization, not very athletic, and problem solving techniques. John Nash embodies the standard brainiac but exposes his intelligence in a subtle, minimalistic manner. One point that stands above all is how perfect Russell Crowe's portrayal of John Nash was. The character arc of Crowe's character carries the film. Without such a comprehensive screenplay, "A…
Review by Ezequiel Porcel ★★★½

La recordaba mejor, es bastante golpebajera.
Review by Danielle Baranda ★★★

"Are they gone?"
"No, they're not gone. And maybe they never will be. But I've gotten used to ignore them, and I think they've given up on me. You think that's what it's like with all our dreams and our nightmares? You've got to keep feeding them for them to stay alive?"
"They haunt you, though."
"They're my past."
"Everybody is haunted by their past."
Review by Marcelo Cypreste ★★★½

Great Russell Crowe and cast acting.
Jenny Connelly is stunning here.

Ed Harris is outstanding.

A movie that gets old each time you watch, but still is one of Howard's best.
Review by ceciliamika ★★★½

I really loved the cinematography and then I looked it up and guess what, it's the Roger Deakins! I just loved the subtle beauty but my fav scene was when Jennifer Connelly wore that coral dress and it just glowed!

The plot is...fine. The whitewashing of Alicia Nash and the erasure of John's bisexuality is not surprising but still disappointing.
Review by noles739 ★★★★

Good movie. Connelly was great, showing devastation and frustration in a particular scene that I’ve never quite seen matched. Crowe was good enough to win all the awards, but he didn’t win the big one. Interesting and heartbreaking look into mental illness. Sad, but really good.