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A BEAUTIFUL MIND (January 1,2002)
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**WARNING** Mathew Klickstein is about to eat his words.
Gang, this movie was FANTASTIC, plain and simple. The film was so fucking good, in fact, that I was actually disappointed. A huge studio film made by DreamWorks, no less, that wasn't completely and totally awful? Uh, oh. An insanely famous director who still has it together and in fact bettered himself? Oh, my. Is it possible that big movies can still be made well? Before this flick, I would say absolutely positively NOT EVER. But, then "A Beautiful Mind" happened, and from the opening credits on, everything was magic. Kudos to Ron Howard. This is by far his best movie to date, and another gem on his rather untarnished record (after all, even his bad movies are still good... except for one certain holiday picture, but we won't count it because even God wouldn't recoignize that movie in the Book of Life). I haven't left the theater
after seeing such a big movie since "The Patriot" two years ago without feeling sick. "A Beautiful Mind" made me feel great. What a film.
The acting was superb. SUPERB. I always have enjoyed Mr. Crowe ever since I first saw "Virtuosity." Yes, it wasn't the best of flicks, but damn, Russell was so awesome in that flick. A true James Bond meets Charles Manson. Probably one of the best film villains in a long time. Ed Harris and Jennifer Connelly were surprise/surprise, insanely great as usual. Even some of the supporting characters played by the always sensational Adam Goldberg and droogs along those lines made the movie true, brutal, funny, whimisical. Hurrah.
Ron Howard directed the flick in a way that should earn him an Oscar. It's pretty tough with Lynchy as a possibility, but I dunno. The acting,the look, the feel, the editing, the choice of artwork, costuming, music, and so forth: all very well played. The movie truly goes one way and then suddenly becomes something you would have never expected and Howard makes this happen in a way few filmmakers can. Compare this to Billy Wilder's "Sunset Boulevard" in many ways, perhaps. And I must say that the moments in which Crowe's character would see things in that
"Little Man Tate"/"Good Will Hunting" type world where things would light up and shit like that: yes! Excellente, sir. Excellente. Great camera movements and usage. Really used the device as a terrific narrative tool.
Akiva Goldsman normally sucks ass. His screenplays ruined the "Batman" series, and "Lost in Space" was a joke. "A Time to Kill" and "The Client" were all right, but lest we forget that this guy produced "Deep Blue Sea." I dunno. Seems like a nice guy, and the marevelous "PCU" was based on his and producer Paul Schiff's house in college, but his movies normally are sucktacular. However, the screenplay in this flick was GRRRREAT. Witty, clever, funny, sensual, sad, depressing, heartfelt, and
completely true in the most brutally honest way I have seen in a movie of this size in probably three or four years. The story was perfect. How much of this was the actual life story of John Nash/the book the flick was based on, I do not know. BUT, regardless, the script was Academy Award worthy yet again.
The last two comments are simple ones. First of all, this was ingenius marketing. Much like "Arlington Road," the trailers and reviews and such thus far would make you think this is just your typical action/espionage story with a kind of "Good Will Hunting" twist, but then became something completely new and different than anything you could expect. Kudos to Brian Grazer for making sure this all worked out. DO WHATEVER YOU CAN NOT TO KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THE PLOT BEFORE SEEING THE FLICK!! You will be PLEASANTLY surprised.
Finally, the music. Wow. What a score. One I would buy. The true magical and almost surrealistic/etherial music styling that Danny Elfman or Carter Burwell would make on their best day of creativity. It was so uplifting and dark at the same time that I just, I dunno, man. It really made the movie something special (though, this would have happened regardless). James Horner is just gold. He hasn't always worked with
great flicks, but his scores are something to be reckoned with.
I almost want to write Ron Howard a letter just to tell him thanks for not giving in to the pressures and commercialism of Hollywood like ALL his cronnies have completely. This movie was so risky and SO dark/depressing for such a long period of time, that I'm sure anyone else would have completely sugarcoated it and made it something like "AI." I wish that more movies could be made like this that have its budget, but they probably will still just get worse and worse.
SEE THIS FLICK!! IT'S ONE OF THE YEAR'S BEST!
PS
A buddy of mine used the book as a proposal to get into the film school here and when he found out it was being made, he got really pissed off. That sucks ass, and it happens to me all the time (d'oh: Bret Easton Ellis' "Rules of Attraction"!), but I couldn't imagine this movie being any better.
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