This movie was made for the Academy Awards. It's a heartwarming story of a guy who is able to overcome great odds to win a Nobel Prize and gain the love of a beautiful woman. It features Russell Crowe in a role that can't fail to win him an Oscar: he is an Australian actor who plays an American paranoid schizophrenic who ages 40 years during the film. None of which is all that related to acting, but the Academy doesn't know the difference. "He gained weight? He does an accent? That's acting!" Not that Crowe was bad; in fact, he was very very good. So was Jennifer Connelly, who played what was the more difficult role. She plays the wife of the aforementioned schizophrenic, and she didn't have verbal or physical mannerisms to fall back on. She had to convince us that she loved this jerk, and that it was difficult for her to handle his considerable problems. She had one "Oscar clip" scene, but overall her performance was an exercise in understatement.

John Nash is a brilliant mathematician who goes to Cornell to come up with a "truly original idea." This puts him at a disadvantage, since the other students around him go to class. The primary ones in the film are Adam Goldberg as Sol, who plays what appears to be a composite character: the guy who accepts Nash (I haven't read the book, so I can't tell if he is a real person or just a composite). Then there is Josh Lucas as Hansen, the cocky smart guy who is expected to make it big. They cast Lucas perfectly, since you want to punch him every time he smiles. Also around is Nash's roommate Charles, played by Paul Bettany as the guy who attempts to force Nash to have fun.

Despite not going to class, Nash has his original idea: they call it game theory, and I can't begin to explain it to you. It is used almost universally as a way of solving problems ranging from corporate takeovers to crisis intervention to peacemaking. Nash also meets the love of his life, the only female willing to accept his blunt and rude mannerisms, Alicia, played by Jennifer Connelly. Here, also, is where Hollywood kicks in. The real Nash is supposedly a raging asshole, a possibly a virulent racist, and overall jerk. Where was that part of the movie? Oh, I know, it would have detracted from the film's ability to tug at our heartstrings and make us cry. As a friend pointed out to me, racism is one of the faults that we find hardest to forgive. However, as last year's Pollack showed, it is possible to have a sympathetic lead who is a raging ass. However, Ron Howard is not the director who is going to show you that person.

Right around this time, Nash is commissioned by a shadowy government agent played by Ed Harris. He is to decode hidden messages in hundreds of newspapers regarding a Soviet plot to bomb the United States. The problem is, the conspiracy doesn't exist anywhere other than in Nash's head. This does not detract from the strength of this, the best and most gripping part of the film. Ron Howard's direction and the acting of the principals makes it seem real and frightening. Only gradually does it come out that Nash was not working for the government, but the secret agents and conspiracies remain just as real to Nash, and just as gripping for the viewer.

I was unimpressed, other than a few short scenes, with the first half of the movie. The strength of the film arises in the second half, when we see the disease that Nash suffers from played out on the screen. Crowe and Connelly are at their best here, as he slowly loses his mind and she slowly loses her ability to cope with him. I wish the film had been a half hour shorter, with less lead-up to the important part, which I argue is his experiencing his delusions and then finding a way to deal with them. They never go away. The real Nash still teaches at Princeton, and I wonder if his demons still gaze wistfully at him from the back of the classroom.