Hmmm 1 + 1,
now let me see
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"Hey everybody,
let's go see a film about maths!" As Saturday night propositions
go, the pitch for "A Beautiful Mind" is about as enticing as playing
Happy Families with Fred West.
Nev Pierce
But put Russell
Crowe in the cinematic equation and Ron Howard's latest portion
of Academy-friendly fare becomes a good deal more appetising.
Just as the brusque
Antipodean's intensity and screen charisma blinded audiences to
the flaws in "Gladiator", so he delivers another astonishing performance
that more than compensates for this film's weaker facets.
A (highly) fictionalised
biopic of real-life maths whizz John Forbes Nash Jr, it follows
the socially stunted prodigy from his professional beginnings as
a nervous freshman at Princeton, through Cold War spy machinations,
and his struggle to hold together his marriage to fellow mathematician
Alicia (Connelly).
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| Wanna come
upstairs and see my long division? |
Crowe is totally
convincing - from 19-year-old student to OAP - giving a truth to
Akiva Goldsman's occasionally twee dialogue and bringing fear and
excitement to the most off-putting of subjects.
Facing off with
such a formidable, scene-stealing star would terrify a lesser actor
than Jennifer Connelly, but she matches Crowe scene for scene. With
a glamour and grace reminiscent of a 40s film star, and unafraid
to suffer some unflattering close-ups of her angst-contorted face,
the Golden Globe-winner delivers a performance that should see her
secure a place on the A-list.
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| What do
you mean you don't recognise me with my clothes on? |
Another supporting
player who signals his Hollywood arrival is Brit Paul Bettany, as
Nash's enigmatic best friend - fulfilling the promise he showed
in both "Gangster No.1" and "A Knight's Tale".
In truth it's
the acting that makes the movie, for while Howard does a good job
of actually making sums exciting - and pulls off a masterful narrative
shift halfway through - he can't sidestep the pacing problems of
biopics that try to cram in their subjects' entire life - perfunctorily
whizzing through decades in the final half hour.
Still, such problems
are forgivable as the tearstained finale crowns a moving love story.
Who'd have thought algebra could be so exciting?
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