GAMES: GameSpot | GameFAQs | SportsGamer MUSIC: Last.fm | MP3.com MOVIES: Metacritic | Movietome TV: TV.com
Home | About Metacritic | About Metascores | What's New | Wireless Versions | Discussion Forums | Advertising Inquiries | Contact Us | RSS
Metacritic.com: We Deal With Criticism
     Help
> Switch to Advanced Search  
Film Video/DVD Music Games TV

DVD and Video

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

 

Recent Releases in DVD and Video

sort by name sort by score

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.



 

Printer-Friendly Version Email This Page Discuss In Our Forums

Beautiful Mind, A
MCA/Universal Pictures

Beautiful Mind, A reviews
Critic Score
Metascore: 72 Metascore out of 100
User Score  
6.5 out of 10
based on 33 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
based on 86 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content and a scene of violence

Starring Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Paul Bettany, Vivien Cardone, Adam Goldberg, Judd Hirsch, and Josh Lucas

A human drama about the struggle of a true genius, inspired by events in the life of John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Universal Pictures)


GENRE(S): Romance  
WRITTEN BY: Sylvia Nasar (book)
Akiva Goldsman
 
DIRECTED BY: Ron Howard  
RELEASE DATE: DVD: June 25, 2002 
Video: June 25, 2002 
Theatrical: December 21, 2001 
RUNNING TIME: 129 minutes, Color 
ORIGIN: USA 

Named Best Picture at the 74th Annual Academy Awards. Received a total of eight 2002 Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actor (Russell Crowe), Best Director (Ron Howard, who won the award) and Best Adapted Screenplay (another winner, for Akiva Goldsman). Nominated for six Golden Globe nominations, "A Beautiful Mind" won four: Best Picture-Drama, Best Actor (Crowe), Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Connelly) and Best Screenplay (Goldsman).

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100
Time Richard Schickel
The result is mainstream moviemaking at its highest, most satisfying level.
100
San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann
Inspiring and largely unsentimental, this is as much a love story as a tale of courage.
Read Full Review
100
Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Crowe brings the character to life by sidestepping sensationalism and building with small behavioral details.
Read Full Review
90
Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Sadly, Howard blands out in the final third, using old-age makeup and tear-jerking to turn a tough true story into something easily digestible. Until then, you'll be riveted.
Read Full Review
90
New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky
It's everything most movies this year have not been: deeply felt, genuine, gracious.
Read Full Review
89
Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
So many things come together so beautifully in this movie based on the life of John Forbes Nash Jr. that you're likely to find yourself willing to benignly overlook its occasional biographical lapses and narrative sweetening.
Read Full Review
88
New York Post Jonathan Foreman
Gripping, smart and moving, without falling prey to sentimentality, it shows what can be achieved when mainstream filmmakers like Howard and Goldsman are genuinely inspired and determined to be honest.
Read Full Review
88
Boston Globe Jay Carr
The film makes more apparent than ever that Howard is quite underrated as a filmmaker, possibly because he's been hidden in full view in the mainstream for so long.
88
Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
Though the role might seem a real stretch for an actor who just won an Oscar for his Charlton Heston turn as Maximus in "Gladiator," he and the movie ace the test.
Read Full Review
88
ReelViews James Berardinelli
The kind of expression of emotion that touches a deeper chord.
Read Full Review
88
USA Today Mike Clark
This is one inspiring movie despite extremely tricky subject matter -- better than "Shine" and among the most affecting ever made about co-existing with mental demons.
Read Full Review
88
Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Howard has never been so grown-up in his handling of tough themes or so inventive in depicting states of mind. Goldsman has never been so down-to-earth or created so touching a character.
Read Full Review
83
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's an absorbing, progressively unsettling and ultimately very inspiring biographical reflection that, in the interest of creating its subject's internal landscape, plays some chilling tricks on its audience.
Read Full Review
83
Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Crowe sometimes summons up one of the most powerful depictions of mental illness I have ever seen with barely an eyelid flicker separating manifestations of sickness from utterly sane displays of creative concentration.
Read Full Review
80
Slate David Edelstein
As Nash gets closer to Crowe's own age (and level of dissipation), the performance settles down and becomes first credible and then overwhelming. This is a stupendous piece of acting.
Read Full Review
80
Variety Todd McCarthy
Consistently engrossing as an unusual character study and as a trip to the mysterious border-crossing between rarified brilliance and madness, this serious-minded but lively film is distinguished by an exceptional performance by Russell Crowe.
Read Full Review
80
The New Yorker Anthony Lane
Crowe astounds with his technical skill. [7 Jan 2002, p. 82]
80
Washington Post Stephen Hunter
A greatly ambitious undertaking, but from the commercial point of view quite insane. The movie is ridiculously fragile: It's like a Faberge egg, and even a twitch of foreknowledge will destroy the magic of the movie utterly.
Read Full Review
80
Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector
Director Ron Howard's deftness in suggesting the subjective experience of Crowe's character, who's later diagnosed with schizophrenia, makes for inspirational narrative.
Read Full Review
75
New York Daily News Jami Bernard
This is another brilliant performance by Crowe, who is to body language what Meryl Streep is to accents.
Read Full Review
75
Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
What began as a bold and thrilling story descends into Hollywood cliché. But Crowe and Connelly's work rises above the mush. They make A Beautiful Mind go.
Read Full Review
70
Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Howard, and the screenwriter, Akiva Goldsman, have used the book as nothing more than their jumping-off point for an erratic work of fiction that's part mystery thriller and part Hollywood schmaltz.
60
Village Voice Dennis Lim
It's doubly frustrating that after flirting with (and even upending) biopic conventions for much of its length, A Beautiful Mind finally gives in to them so readily.
Read Full Review
60
Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
There is more to admire in A Beautiful Mind than you might suspect, but less than its creators believe. When the film does succeed, it almost seems to do so despite itself.
Read Full Review
60
TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
The success of this effect, which helps elevate the movie above a classy disease-of-the-week saga, rests firmly on Russell Crowe's performance, and it's a strikingly good and moving one.
Read Full Review
60
LA Weekly John Powers
While I don't doubt that Howard's done the best he can, it's sad to see a beautiful mind whittled down by such a plain one.
Read Full Review
60
The New York Times Dana Stevens
The movie can -- indeed, should -- be intellectually rejected, but you can't quite banish it from your mind.
Read Full Review
50
Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Crowe understands what's interesting about Nash: He's not a feel-good figure. It's a pity the same can't be said for Howard.
Read Full Review
50
Washington Post Desson Thomson
Instead of an originally conceived movie that reflects Nash's troubled but brilliant mind, we have one of those formulaically rendered Important Subject movies -- the kind that seem exclusively designed for Best Picture nominations.
Read Full Review
50
Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt
While it's a splendidly acted film, A Beautiful Mind is also a wasted opportunity.
Read Full Review
40
Newsweek David Ansen
Too facile to resonate deeply. Shouldn't a movie celebrating Nash give you some idea what his mathematical work is about? Fishier still is the suggestion that the cure for paranoid schizophrenia is love.
30
Film Threat Ron Wells
Aside from all the known material on public record the filmmakers chose not to use, Howard isn't even capable of believably bringing this off.
Read Full Review
20
Salon.com Charles Taylor
It's not just our emotions that are being played on here, it's not just our intelligence being insulted because of Ron Howard and Akiva Goldsman's presumption that we won't have any interest in a character whom it's not always possible to like. It's John Nash's life, being turned into an Oscar machine and an easy way to jerk tears.
Read Full Review

What Our Users Said

Vote Now!The average user rating for this movie is 6.5 (out of 10) based on 86 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Jerry M. gave it a6:
Oh, please. People are rating this movie a 10, placing it in the company of the Godfather, Citizen Kane etc? Formulaic but intriguing.

Terry A. gave it a10:
I personally think that this is one of Ron Howard’s best, if not THE best. The acting is superb. The story is immaculate. The twist is a surprise that makes your heart pound. If you don't like this movie, go watch Scary Movie 4. That's the movie for you. This is a movie that we don't see often. A great one. Sorry Ebert, I'm not stealing your idea, but I give this a thumbs up also.

Franz F. gave it a10:
Best film ever. invidual. awsome.

Tina B. gave it a1:
Sugar-coated, inaccurate and manipulative drivel that is only rescued from the depths of utter unwatchability by Connely's stand-out performance.

Hamid M. gave it a10:
This movie is modern classic - extremely well put together. For metacritic to attract only a 72, alongside slash and beat movies, shows that this place is frequented by the wrong crowds. Something is broken with metacritic to give this a 72, IMO.

Steven gave it a10:
72? Some of these critics honestly don't know shit, this is one of the most powerful, captivating and interesting drama movies you can see, the acting and the story is very involving, the movies soundtrack is just bliss, I could watch this film over and over and over, by the way Ed Harris is great in this film, its true.

Kim M. gave it a10:
This is only a split second of the life of John Nash, and I can only try to imagine how his life has been for him, and for his family. But the movie did its finest work there. It might not tell the hole truth, but it is what you want to tell the viewers, that is important here, a hint about a very special life of a genious.

Read more user comments...

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page
Home | FILM | DVD/VIDEO | MUSIC | GAMES | TV | Forums | About Metacritic metacritic.com

Popular on CBS sites: MLB | Spore | iPhone 3G | Paris Hilton | Antivirus Software | GPS | Recipes | Shwayze | NFL

About CBS Interactive | Jobs | Advertise

© 2008 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use