A film which deals with the plight of John Nash (played by Russell Crowe), a brilliant academic until he fell ill while decrypting enemy messages in the Pentagon. Nash becomes obsessed with decoding newspapers and magazines in the pursuit of defeating the Soviets, even letting it get in the way of his marriage. Brought to hospital, Nash is labelled schizophrenic. After he is released, he stops taking his antipsychotics because of their side effects and learns to live with his imaginary characters after going through hell for a number of years. He does some quiet research at Princeton and was eventually able to teach again, winning a Nobel Laureate in 1994 for his work on Game Theory. A Beautiful Mind is a brave movie in its attempts to bring schizophrenia to 'ordinary' audiences and for the most part, director Ron Howard is successful in crafting the terrible paranoia, delusions and hallucinations that characterise psychotic illness. The creation of imaginary characters was a brilliant idea which demonstrated just how real the person with schizophrenia perceives their hallucinations. Crowe gives a terrific performance and is able to convey the complex behaviour and mindset of a schizophrenic very well.
My first film watched was Carrie aged 2 on my dad's knee. Educated at The University of St Andrews and Trinity College Dublin. Fan of Arthouse, Exploitation, Horror, Euro Trash, Giallo, New French Extremism. Weaned at the bosom of a Russ Meyer starlet. The bleaker, artier or sleazier the better!
