A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition)

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DVD details

Actor: Kent Cassella, Patrick Blindauer, Paul Bettany, Tanya Clarke, Vivien Cardone
Brand: UNI DIST CORP. (MCA)
Primary Contributor: Russell Crowe
Primary Contributor: Ed Harris
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled)
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 135 minutes
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Universal Home Video

DVD Reviews of A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition)

DVD Review: a decent work of fiction
Summary: 3 Stars

Not having been familiar at all with the life of John Nash, I came into this knowing that the movie was based on a real person who is a math genius and has schizophrenia, and that's all I knew. Going along, while I found the movie entertaining and engrossing, I couldn't help but suspect that a lot of the things happening didn't actually happen in real life. It was either too far-fetched or too Hollywood-perfect. So, afterwards, I started doing some research, and I was astounded by just how much of the movie was pure fiction.

It strikes me as disingenuous for this film to have been marketed as a true story. Obviously a lot of people think it is an accurate biography. It would've been better if the makers of this film gave Nash's character a different name and then said that it was loosely based on the life of a real person, instead of giving the character that person's name and then totally inventing or ignoring most of his life's details.

If you are looking for an emotional film about love conquering adversity and a couple struggling with mental illness, you will probably find this movie very touching. It does deliver on that level. But if you are looking for an accurate film about the life John Nash, this isn't it.

DVD Review: mistaken point of view
Summary: 2 Stars

In reading another reviews I'm afraid to let my opinion but I think isn't so important and truth is. I only know mathematician John Nash owing to this film and something else I have read after showing it. I think he's truly a superb scientist, supported by the incomparable opportunities the USA universities offer to these people over- dowered.
But for me this movie has two central failures; these are, the hallucinations are presented in a form too solid and coarse, so, the viewer also believes the FBI agent and the student of Literature,, mate of Nash at the University are real. This trick, of course, surprises later the spectator, but I think hallucinations from schizophrenia are more subtle, untouchable things than these sturdy ghosts.
In other side, it seems Nash, being aware he suffers a terrible disease, uses his powerful mind to fight against the schizophrenia, so, he orders his hallucinations to retire and vanish. I think this is also unbelievable. Such unfortunate patients simply can't do anything in that way. I at less think so: volition and will are powerful weapons, but we humans are limited and is convenient to know when an effort is reasonable although difficult, and what is simply impossible, although at last, yes, who can say until when the will and love are operative?.
This is because the formidable mind of John Nash is very strong in dealing with abstract questions, surely he's one of that persons with a very high intelligence quotient, but mental illness are I think mostly a problem with deep roots in another class of intelligence not measurable with the IQ. Unfortunately, there, Nash is weaker. People as him have an asymmetrical mind. Today perhaps these is called today emotional intelligence, tomorrow we don't know, that doesn't matter here. Human beings have several classes of "brains" inside. A bad coordination of these complex mental machinery can drive to these illness.
Perhaps the physical strong Russel Crowe is neither the ideal protagonist for this personage but that isn't so important. As it were, I wish the best for people as John Nash....Not all persons are capable to win a Nobel prize still with a good health.

DVD Review: Crowe Does It Again!
Summary: 5 Stars

The more I watch Russell Crowe, the more I am becoming a big fan of his acting talent. Here again, he demonstrates his skills in a role that had me spellbound. Of course, mentally-ill fictional characters are usually fascinating. Look how popular the cable television show "Monk" has become.

Crowe's character, mathematician John Nash, is not nearly as eccentric as "Monk," but his schizophrenia makes for a fascinating portrait of a very troubled man. This is another of those based-on-a-true-story films, so don't take everything here as gospel truth....because it ain't so. (One example: in real life, Nash's wife was anything but as supportive as Jennifer Connelly was portrayed here.)

Add some classy-looking cinematography, thanks to one of the best cameramen in the business, Roger Deakins, and the film is even better. I'm not always a fan of director Ron Howard, but his films are usually interesting and pleasing to the eye. He and Crowe seem to be a good pair, too, as witnessed by 2005's "Cinderella Man."

For those who enjoy a cerebral thriller, this is a very intriguing film. Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, Josh Lucas and Anthony Rapp all deliver solid supporting help and, if you haven't seen this, this story will deliver a big surprise. If you know the ending, a second viewing is even more interesting as you trace Nash's actions from the beginning.

DVD Review: 3 stars out of 4
Summary: 4 Stars

The Bottom Line:

An often-moving story, A Beautiful Mind sometimes rambles or takes too long on a dead end of a plotline, but deserves praise for taking one of the most formulaic genres (the biopic) and doing something completely different, mainly successfully.

DVD Review: A great love story and a great movie
Summary: 5 Stars

I'm very touched by the movie, especially the love of John Nash's wife to him. Love is patient, love is endurance, love is not just after one's own benefits, and love shines. And Jennifer Connelly's Oscar is well earned.

Highly recommended.

Description of A Beautiful Mind (Widescreen Awards Edition)

Winner of 4 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, A Beautiful Mind is directed by Academy Award winner Ron Howard and produced by long-time partner and collaborator, Academy Award winner Brian Grazer. A Beautiful Mind stars Russell Crowe in an astonishing performance as brilliant mathematician John Nash, on the brink of international acclaim when he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. Now only his devoted wife (Academy Award winner Jennifer Connelly) can help him in this powerful story of courage, passion and triumph.

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

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