There 
are
people who are good at sums and then there are people who
actually like mathematics! This is a film about the
latter. A somewhat embellished true story of the Nobel
prize winning American mathematician John Nash. So why
make a film about it, and a possible Oscar award winning
film at that?
No doubt the
answer lies in the acting of Russell Crowe and the subject
matter; it being, not maths, but the life and times
of a paranoid-schizophrenic and how he overcame the
condition in so far as it could. The film kicks off at
Princeton University USA where John Nash (Crowe) has just
arrived on winning the second half of a scholarship
in the early fifties. The fifties and sixties were at the
height of the 'Cold War' between American and Russia which
forms a broad background for Nash's involvement, working
for the government at the Pentagon. They recognised Nash's
skills in recognising code patterns in use by Soviet
forces.
Its well
documented that exceptional geniuses in any area, are
deficient in some parts of social skills and interactions
with people, and right from the start this provided much
amusement for the audience. He tended to cut down
situations and occasions to the basic core statements -
relying on the essence of fact rather than the
accompanying padding. This stemmed from his years of
mathematical training and complex problem solving. One
particular instance, his friends goaded him into
approaching a girl at a bar, which he did with some relish
but killed the situation when he talked about sex as
"being nothing but the exchange of body fluids, so
lets get down to it" This early rejection was to
haunt him throughout the film, and so he was more
than careful when approached by one of his more brighter
female students Alicia (Connelly).
The
film plots John Nash's rise to fame at Princeton
university, after a period of non-productivity. He is at
one time threatened with expulsion until he comes up with
a new thesis which effectively rubbishes much of Adam
Smiths work on economic theory published earlier. This and
other work lead to his scholarship at M.I.T and the
subsequent hiring by the Pentagon, but its more than a
film about Nash and his genius. As they say, there is a
fly in every ointment, and in this case it was
schizophrenia and this is what the film is really about.
Its not an easy topic to show on screen, never mind make a
feature length film about, so it wasn't until an hour and
fifteen minutes of run time had elapsed that this was
truly revealed. Up to this we had tolerated Nash's
idiosyncrasies as that of coming from a maths nerd!
His subsequent
marriage to Alicia did prompt questions from me as to her
authenticity as hubby was at that time working for the
Pentagon, but this proved to be groundless. I cant really
tell anymore without giving the plot away completely, but
his demise is quite saddening, while at the same time
giving a valuable insight into the world of a
paranoid-schizophrenic. Good direction by Ron Howard
leaves the audience guessing who is right and who is wrong
- where does your loyalty lie?
Very little
was known in the 60's about the condition and the range of
treatments available were limited and quite disturbing -
the after effects leaving Nash, a sometimes broken man not
to mention his wife, who questioned her own sanity and
safety.
The film ends
with the awarding of the Nobel laureate in 1994 to
John Nash for his work on game theory and his gradual
acceptance of his condition, which never did go away. Your
attention is kept to the very end.
