Brilliant Mind

This story is carried forward with great sensitivity and with a clever focus on the emotional core issue of challenging one's own failing mind using facts from someone you trust in order to regain reality.

    Seeing this a second time, I was able to focus on Russell Crowe's use of facial expression - and it was eerie what he was able to do.  The choice of Jennifer Connelly for Alicia, based on her ability to equal Crowe's intensity and then, as a result of this chemistry, raise the bar for the pair of them, was excellent.

    I also took the time to freeze-frame the blackboard that Nash (Crowe) used in the scene where he challenges his class.  The scribbles I didn't understand the first time I watched the film were not variables or terms or Egyptian characters, but poorly drawn parentheses.

Watching the interviews on DVD, I was most impressed with both Akiva Goldsman, the screenwriter and Ron Howard, the director.

Reviewed in 2002