John Nash is a brilliant but asocial mathematician fighting schizophrenia. After he accepts secret work in cryptography, his life takes a turn for the nightmarish.
Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman's clever solution is to turn the story of a troubled academic into a Hollywood thriller. How? He makes things up.
– David Ansen,
Newsweek,
4 Feb 2014
fresh:
The result is one of the most successful attempts to make math look sexy, even if the movie strays - gallops, really - from the details of the actual life of Nobel Prize-winner John Forbes Nash Jr.
– Jami Bernard,
New York Daily News,
4 Feb 2014
rotten:
It's not a crime for the script to gloss over the thornier aspects of Nash's story, but the film seems totally unconvincing, squeezing a real life into a formula that's simultaneously more palatable and less interesting.
– Scott Tobias,
AV Club,
4 Feb 2014
fresh:
A Beautiful Mind is Howard's best movie, and easily one of the best movies of the year.
– Christy Lemire,
Associated Press,
4 Feb 2014
fresh:
Crowe's interpretation of this tortured genius is textured and complex.