A Beautiful Mind is about the life of Nobel Prize winner mathematician John Nash (Russell Crowe). It starts with Nash attending Princeton University where he obsesses over coming up with a truly original idea and skips most of his classes because he feels that he will learn nothing original. When he finally does come up with his original idea it is revolutionary and opens a lot of doors for him. After getting a teaching job at M.I.T. he starts doing some work with the military deciphering codes and becomes increasingly paranoid about a Russian invasion. Then he meets a beautiful student in his class Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) who would become his wife. As his behavior becomes more bizarre she has him checked out by a psychiatrist where we learn that he has been having hallucinations and created his own fantasy world. He struggles with what is real and imaginary and tries to get some sort of life back. Frustrated with the medication they gave him because it makes his mind foggy he goes off the medication and starts having hallucinations again. He finally moves back to Princeton and finds some comfort being in familiar surroundings. It is here that he learns that his original idea he was working so hard on has become very useful and he was selected to receive the Nobel Prize in Mathematics.
The movie ultimately won 4 awards including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay. I loved that you don’t know who is real and who is imaginary till half way through and it took me by surprise. Then to watch him struggle and cope was very inspirational. It was incredibly well acted and is Russell Crowes best performance in my opinion. I think if he didn’t win the year before for his weaker performance in Gladiator he would have had a chance to win (it was his third Best Actor nomination in a row only the second person to do that). Besides Crowe and Connelly I was most impressed by Ed Harris and Paul Bettany as Nash’s hallucinations and should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actors. There was a lot of controversy around awards time about the movie saying they glossed over his life and struggles but in the end it didn’t matter and it still won.
A lot of people still ask how it beat Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring for Best Picture and I think it has to do with a couple of things. First after 9/11 people were looking for inspiration and a feel good movie and this movie provided both. A movie about a guy who overcomes tremendous obstacles was moving. Second The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring had no ending. I know it was only the first part of a trilogy but it kind of has an anticlimactic end. And when taken by itself in its original 3 hour run time it was kind of confusing if you don’t already know some of the story. Characters just show up and are not really introduced. The first time I saw the movie I didn’t know Gimli was a Dwarf till about half way through. After seeing some of the deleted scened and the extended versions the movie makes a little more sense but going from the theatrical version that was released that year I don’t think it should have won.
The other movie that got a lot of attention that year was Moulin Rouge which you either liked or hated. And I fall into the latter category. I found the movie just silly and hard to take serious with all the modern day songs being sung in the early 1900’s.
In my opinion two movies that should have been nominated for Best Picture that got overlooked were Black Hawk Down and Memento. Black Hawk Down did get a nomination for Best Director but didn’t get one for Best Picture. I think that is partly due to the violent nature of the movie and being so close to 9/11. But it was a great action and intense movie. Memento was a truly original movie that should have at least won Best Picture. I think it was a crime that something so original lost Best Original Screenplay to Gosford Park, but Christopher Nolan was an unknown and Robert Altman was a legend.
Oscar Facts
Russell Crowe’s Third Best Actor Nomination in a Row
It was also the first year that they had a Best Animated Feature Oscar which was won by Shrek beating Monsters Inc. and Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius.
IMDB Top 250 for 2001
Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring- #17
Memento- #31
Donnie Darko-145
A Beautiful Mind-243
Monsters Inc. - 247
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