Every Best Picture Oscar Movie Winner Of 21st Century Ranked Worst To Best

22. A Beautiful Mind (2001)

What should have won: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring. 

A Beautiful Mind feels like three movies in one, all battling each other for control.

Perhaps there’s a reason for this - this is the story of John Nash, after all, a brilliant mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia - but even so, it makes for a torturous affair, an overblown soap opera that should have been a much quieter character study. 

Based on a powerful true story, director Ron Howard throws all he can at the wall to see what sticks. Attempting to recreate the inspirational highs of Apollo 13, he fails to grasp the moving reality of Nash’s story, which is exaggerated at every turn in Howard’s attempts to create a biopic by way of a tepid conspiracy thriller. 

A Beautiful Mind isn’t all bad - Russell Crowe is compelling as a man fighting his mind, and when it slows down to focus on his struggle there's hints of genuine care - but what does it matter? The film leaves more questions than answers, and its tonal wonkiness is eventually too suffocating to bear.