25 Astonishingly Dumb 21st Century Film Oscar Wins
9. 2002: A Beautiful Mind Wins Best Picture, Director & Adapted Screenplay
Beat (Best Picture): Gosford Park, In the Bedroom, The Fellowship of the Ring and Moulin Rouge.
Beat (Best Director): Robert Altman (Gosford Park), Peter Jackson (Fellowship), David Lynch (Mulholland Drive) and Ridley Scott (Black Hawk Down).
Beat (Best Screenplay): Ghost World, In the Bedroom, Fellowship and Shrek.
A film that won Best Picture even though it wasn't super-popular at the time, A Beautiful Mind is a solid 7/10 movie. It's perfectly good but Best Picture-worthy? Get out of here.
A Beautiful Mind is a decent film with some powerful moments, a stunning mid-film plot twist and fantastic performances from Russell Crowe, Paul Bettany, Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly in particular, but it's also pretty uneven and the whole thing just feels a bit safe. It wouldn't have worked nearly as well without such an incredible cast.
When you consider that movies like Mulholland Drive, Memento, Black Hawk Down, The Royal Tenenbaums and Monsters INC weren't nominated, the fact that this movie was even in the Best Picture line-up to begin with just feels plain wrong.
Ron Howard's direction and Akira Goldsman's screenplay were, similarly, both good, but far from Oscar-worthy. Out of the four Oscars this won, only Jennifer Connelly's win for Best Supporting Actress was actually deserved.
In a just world, the other Oscars would've gone to The Fellowship of the Ring, which is a true masterpiece of cinema. Or alternatively, it would've been wonderful to see David Lynch get an Oscar for Mulholland Drive.