A Beautiful Mind: The reviews
We recommend that you wait until after you have seen A Beautiful Mind to read the full reviews, as many contain spoilers, ranging from minor to major.
We recommend that you wait until after you have seen A Beautiful Mind to read the full reviews, as many contain spoilers, ranging from minor to major.
(Thanks to Di)
New York Times: "But above all there is the fierce presence of Mr. Crowe, who refuses every temptation to overact the role set before him. Too often the chance to depict genius or mental disorder is taken, even by gifted actors like Dustin Hoffman ('Rain Man') and Geoffrey Rush ('Shine'), as a license to show off.
"Mr. Crowe, with his superhuman powers of concentration, shows us a man who dwells almost entirely in an inner world, and he dramatizes that inwardness as if nobody were watching. A faint smile plays across Nash's mouth, and his speech is whispery and halting, with a suggestion of the South in its cadences. (Mr. Nash grew up in West Virginia.) As always with Mr. Crowe, you never feel that these are actorly mannerisms; they seem instead to arise from a deep absorption in the logic of the character." Read the full review here.
Los Angeles Times: "Crowe is an actor capable of conveying simultaneous arrogance and diffidence, and even though his West Virginia accent seems like a bit of a stunt, he is someone we always want to watch, a forceful performer whose strength has regularly blown co-stars off the screen." Read the full review "A Perplexing Equation"
Andrew Sarris in the New York Observer has this to say: "Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind, sparked by Russell Crowe's extraordinary evocation of schizophrenia, which to my mind is by far the best performance of the year."
Contra Costa Times: "Crowe is, as usual, a completely convincing chameleon, the male Meryl Streep. It's tempting to give the makeup artists the credit for the remarkable job they do in aging him, but one suspects Crowe himself has a lot to do with how believable he is as a senior citizen . . . Throughout this movie we not only see this man go through hell, we feel it, thanks to Crowe's complete immersion in the part. Chances look good for his third Oscar nomination in as many years." Full review "Crowe Brilliant in Stirring 'Beautiful Mind.' (Warning: spoilers.)
San Francisco Chronicle: " Brilliant 'Mind' Russell Crowe thoroughly convincing as a genius with schizophrenia" (Minor spoilers)
Newsday: [Ron] "Howard, in the end, is responsible for what happens in the course of "A Beautiful Mind," but it is, in many ways, Russell Crowe's movie. Although the actor seems tic-happy and mannered at the outset of the film, the performance is ultimately a sustained, convincing and assuredly moving tribute to its subject. There seems little doubt, by the time the end credits roll, that John Nash was just as fascinating as the movie makes him seem." Manic Impressive
The Washington Post: "Russell Crowe is fabulous. His Nash is quite a concoction: a mixture of arrogance and fear, all locked in a giant, clumsy body, with a wit that was deadly when it could be provoked into paying attention. But Nash also had, and Crowe also expresses, great ambition. He knew he could make a difference in the way humans understand the universe, and only achievement at the Newtonian level was acceptable to him.""Fragile Genius of 'A Beautiful Mind'" (Minor spoilers)
New York Daily News: "This is another brilliant performance by Crowe, who is to body language what Meryl Streep is to accents. (The West Virginia accent he adopts early in the movie takes a beating in later scenes.) As a young man, Crowe's Nash is a bundle of tics and gestures. But he also has a slyly winning self-knowledge and diffidence that makes it easy to see why a student like Jennifer Connolly, with looks to the nth power, would go after him." "Do the Math: It's Not Real, But It Works"
Toronto Sun: "...it is a flesh-and-blood performance in which an enormously skillful actor plumbs the depth of another human being and lets us into the psychological nightmare." "Mind Teaser" (Spoilers)
Seattle Times:"Russell Crowe again demonstrates his ability to disappear into a character as John Nash, a Princeton mathematician whose career encompassed early fame, decades of struggle with schizophrenia, and ultimate glory (Nash won the Nobel Prize in 1994). Crowe played a man of science in 1999's "The Insider," but here he's doing something different: Nash speaks in halting, half-swallowed words, as if afraid of them. Crowe doesn't overdo Nash's nervous tics ÷ squinting, rubbing his forehead ÷ but makes them an integral part of a complex, troubled man. "A Beautiful Mind"
Calgary Sun: Crowe Has Formula for Success
National Post: In Hollywood, Even Math Can Be Sexy
USA Today: Crowe Brings to 'Mind' a Great Performance
Movie Juice: Crazy/Beautiful
Orange County Register: "Russell Crowe gives a good and even appealing performance as Nash, blending arrogance and bashfulness into a human blend." Flaws Waste 'A Beautiful Mind'
Tampa Tribune: "With 'A Beautiful Mind,' Russell Crowe virtually assures himself a third straight best actor entry, after his
2000 nomination for 'The Insider' and his 2001 victory for 'Gladiator.' . . . if you enjoy watching a top actor in peak form, you mustn't miss Crowe's performance as the brilliant but troubled mathematician." "Crowe Captures Complexities Of 'A Beautiful Mind'"
Philadelphia Daily News: "As for Crowe, he's fine at showing us Nash's wounded and tormented side, but terrible with what is meant to be a West Virginia drawl . . . Still, he remains an interesting actor to watch even in the midst of a problematic performance." 'Beautiful' Connelly
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