A BEAUTIFUL MIND

 

FOUR STARS - INSPIRATIONAL

 

 

       The true story of Nobel-prize winner John Forbes Nash, Jr. (Russell Crowe) is inspiring.  Directed by Ron Howard, we travel with this amazing mathematician through a journey that not only gives us a glimpse into his life but into his soul as well.

        Extremely gifted intellectually, the development of Nash’s mind has dwarfed his lack of development as a whole person.  An accomplished mathematician, his obsession to find an “original idea” that will distinguish him isolates him from his peers and leaves him alone and lonely.   Into this social abyss, Nash creates illusions that fill his needs for friends and purpose.

       The not uncommon marriage of genius with insanity would most often be the end of the story.  But with John Nash, it is only the beginning.

       The difference in Dr. Nash’s life is the faithful love of an amazing woman.  Alicia (Jennifer Connelly) is herself a brilliant student who steps over the social mote around Nash’s life and enters his world.  The struggle he has with this beautiful young woman is that he still attempts to create logarithms to describe all of life, including the experience of love.

       On the night he has decided he will ask Alicia to marry him, he asks her to help him with his need for “proof” on which he can base his decision of marriage.  With wit and charm, Alicia helps him understand that some things have to be taken on faith even within the realm of mathematics.  “It is the same with love,” she explains.

       This beginning step of faith and moving beyond the imprisonment of his mind, begins the process of salvation that Nash needs when he is diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic who hallucinates a conspiracy world in which he is saving the United States from nuclear attack.

       When the classic treatment of that era is to imprison him in a psychiatric hospital and administer daily shock therapy, Alicia commits her life and her safety to stay with him.  In a very moving scene where Nash is struggling to distinguish between what is real and what is a delusion, Alicia places her hand on his heart and explains that what is real is what is in his heart.

       This power of love proves to be the only force equal to the brilliant creations of Nash’s “Beautiful Mind.”  With Alicia’s help, Nash develops a heart to match his mind and is empowered to live a Nobel-prize winning level of life as a professor at Princeton University.

       This inspiring life is a parable greatly needed in our day.   In a world where our brilliant intellects have not only split the atom but also created amazing weapons that increasingly threaten our safety and future, there must be attention given to creating an equal power of love and faithful commitment to one another to preserve our humanity and keep what is truly real paramount.

       Though we may look at creation and marvel at its beauty and complexity, the Creator did not inspire his prophets to describe him as “God is intellect.”  Instead, the inspiration of Scripture is that “God is love.”  When a “Beautiful Mind” and a “Faithful Love” come together, as they did in John’s and Alicia’s lives, a marriage results that can overcome the dangers and threats of this world.  May we have the courage to develop both.