A Beautiful Mind: Film Review

A Beautiful Mind: Film Review

A Beautiful Mind tells a different side of story that not many have ever thought of before. It is a movie about a mathematician genius whose life is turned completely around when people who do not exist come alive in the person's mind. The underlying theme is ultimately genius versus madness. What is the cost of being truly extraordinary?

Being genius may not always have its perks. To be extraordinary, you must be out of the norm. You must be able to think out of the box, way beyond the scope of a normal person. With that comes a sense of intellectual superiority, unfortunately for those who have such a sense. They are usually one of millions. To say the least, it is quite lonely on top. They may find themselves to be unchallenged by their peers. They may find no equal to their intelligence. John Nash was known to be socially awkward. There is an explanation for this, when one is so focused on his/her work, one sacrifices a part of them to be attuned or skillful in their craft, for John Nash it was research. To be truly be a genius like John Nash and be socially accepted is a task that may prove to be impossible, almost like scale. When one part of the scales goes up the other part of the scale goes down.

Perception is an interesting concept in the movie. Through schizophrenia and delusions what's to say what is real and what is not. Certainly to one's mind, body and senses, what one can sense is what is perceived to be real to the individual. John Nash has three delusional beings that exist in his mind; his roommate, his roommate's niece and finally the government agent. What's sad is that at one point he realizes his own best friend, his roommate never existed at all. How would you feel if you were told or discovered that your best friend is really just a fabrication of your imagination? There was a point in the movie where he mentions, "I really miss talking to him." When John begins to learn to deal with his delusions, his roommate comes up to him and says, "John, now, you can't ignore me forever." and John replies, "Charles you've been a very good friend to me; the best. But I won't talk to you, again."

Living with such a debilitating mental disorder does not come easy. As you can observe towards the end of the movie, Alicia shows signs of regret when she is with John. The