After critics' came down hard on his last film ("How the Grinch Stole Christmas"), director Ron Howard comes back with a bang with "A Beautiful Mind". Academy voters out there reading this review, listen up! You unfairly snubbed Howard of a Best Director Oscar nomination 6 years ago for his brilliant "Apollo 13", and if you decide to snub him of a Best Director nomination this year for "A Beautiful Mind", you will be sorry. Howard should be nominated for his directing job on this film because he did a great job. Let me say that again. A GREAT JOB! The film should also get a nod for Best Picture too. It's one of the very best movies of 2001. "A Beautiful Mind" tells the true story of John Forbes Nash Jr., a man who is one of the world's greatest mathematicians, and a victim of schizophrenia. From undergraduate days at Princeton to his winning of the Nobel Prize, we follow Nash on a journey that takes him into the far reaches of mathematical discovery, and into a bewildering labyrinth of hallucinations and madness. Russell Crowe brilliantly portrays Nash in what I think is the best performance of his career. He's sure to win another Oscar nomination this year (we'll see if he can duplicate what Tom Hanks did several years ago and that is win back-to-back Best Actor Oscars; Crowe has a very good chance of doing that). A great supporting performance is turned in by Jennifer Connelly as Nash's wife Alicia; she'll get a Best Supporting Actress nomination. These two key performances by Crowe and Connelly make "A Beautiful Mind" the great film it is thanks primarily to Howard's direction and Akiva Goldsmith's wonderful screenplay (based on Sylvia Nasar's book). "A Beautiful Mind" might give "Lord of the Rings" a run for the Oscars come this March. It's a great movie.
**** (out of four)
**** (out of four)