Studio executives summary / pitch
|
| Russell
'Bad boy brawler' Crowe has agreed to act with a crap haircut... |
Short plot
summary |
|
A highly regarded
mathematician suffers paranoid schizophrenia which almost destroys his life until
he comes to terms with it. |
Rating |
| Adult:
Warning - contains moments of on-screen mathematical proofs, baby swimming without
arm bands, electro shock therapy, dribble. |
What our
panel of critics thought |
"I
started to watch this movie and, during the second half hour, I thought: 'OH
MY GOD! What am I doing here? This is just a crap spy thriller. How on earth did
this pile of poo win so many awards, including best picture?' I am glad
I kept with it because that question was answered adequately in the second half." "Up
there with Schindlers List for a movie to watch once (or maybe twice) but I won'
be adding it to my own collection as paranoid schizophrenia is only one notch
below a film on Clinical Depression for laughs." "Lucky
all this happened after he was married, just imagine getting married to an imaginary
wife? Bitch, fix me a meat sandwich! Where's she gone?" "This
is all very scary and makes me want to reevaluate my view on reality, especially
my thoughts on existentialism which after this movie is truly blown away." "It
is so good to see that that taxi driver, star of TV's popular comedy series Taxi
of the 1970's, has made good for himself. From New York cab driver to professor
in little under 30 years, well done mate." "I
laughed and I laughed and then I had to take a toilet break and then when I returned
I laughed until my sides ached. Does that make me a bad person?" "I
thoroughly recommend a good bottle of something very alcoholic to drink through
this movie. Otherwise it is truly depressing." "Note
to self: Ed Harris looks really good in a hat." |
Please tell me the ending
|
| The
spy and the friend from Princeton and his niece are all delusions. The first thing
that probably strikes you as odd is the implant in his forearm. Digital technology
was not available in the 1940's and the way it was inserted (like a stapler) is
ludicrously unlikely. That is the only clue that we picked up on, however, and
the true depth of the delusion only becomes apparent once he is in hospital and
his wife goes to check out the drops for the proofs that Nash has produced. It
is from that point that you can see his problem. Nicely done. Nash
eventually wins the Nobel Prize for Economics, his pioneering game theory is used
extensively in zero sum games. |
Justify
this movie's existence in the classic strand. From
theVoiceof Reason.com's classically trained Veritable Cornucopia |
| Don't
make the mistake of getting half way and thinking what a load of b movie thriller
tosh this movie is. You need to get through to the end once the spy stuff starts.
An
eye opener of a movie. Perhaps the best attempt to deal with paranoid schizophrenia
one has ever seen (only?) and that possibly explains why this movie has done so
well for awards. It
is nicely shot. The mathematics are not handled to any depth. On the one hand
that is probably a good thing as a general audience doesn't want to get weighed
down in formulas, however as there is only one small explanation of his theories
(below), one found it difficult to understand the full impact his theory must
have had to win the Nobel Prize. |
Quotable
quote (real) |
|
"Who's
winning? You or you?" "Adam
Smith needs revision... If we all go for the blond, we block each other, not a
single one of us is gonna get her. So then we go for her friends they will all
give us the cold shoulder because nobody likes to be second choice. But what if
nobody goes for the blonde? We don't get in each other's way and we don't insult
the other girls. That's the only way we win. That's the only way we all get laid. Adam
Smith said the best result comes if everyone in the group does what's best for
himself. Incomplete. The best result will come if everyone in the group does what
is best for himself and the group." |
What snack should I eat while watching this movie?
|
| Any
food that needs to be prepared using just the instructions on the packet written
in Korean or Chinese (which you can't read). |
If
I were to watch this at home how best should I sit? |
|
In the at-desk-pen-poised-to-prove-an-equation
position ... |
Could this
movie be improved with more geeky haircuts? |
|
All in all the
haircuts are quite fine considering we are talking mathematics geniuses here.
There is also a limited amount of facial hair, hooray! |
How thought
provoking is this movie? |
|
How realistic
is this movie? If it is accurate, we never realized that paranoid schizophrenics
actually see actual real people as part of the delusion. Totally scary. |
Estimate number of minutes of equations. Were there any classics? |
| 4
including 2 on the Princeton Library window. |
How much would
you pay for a copy of this movie in goods? |
|
A How To Be
A Spy For Dummies book. |
How depressing is this movie? |
|
It is horribly
depressing at times and there is a lack of humor throughout. |
Other comments
|
| A
worthy movie, perhaps a watch it twice movie so that you can watch the movie a
second time without that horrible feeling you are in the middle of a B rate thriller
which happened to us in the first hour.
Ultimately, the movie has a sort of happy ending, although we were left wondering
what actually it was that John Nash had actually done. The blonde quote (above),
we presume, is the closest the movie gets to an explanation of the mathematics
that he proved that got him the Nobel Prize.. |
Date of Review |
| September
14, 2005 |