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A DVD Review of...
  
Images (C) Universal |
Genre: Drama
Cast: Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Ed Harris, Paul Bettany, Adam Goldberg, Christopher Plummer
Synopsis: From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash, Jr. experienced it all. A mathematical genius, he made an astonishing discovery early in his career and stood on the brink of international acclaim. But the handsome and arrogant Nash soon found himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. After many years of struggle, he eventually triumphed over this tragedy, and finally-late in life-received the Nobel Prize.
Film Review: Hollywood loves biographical films, especially when its about a larger than life hero who overcomes adversity to become famous and well-respected. This is why the life of maths genius John Forbes Nash Jr. seems tailor made to be an awards calibre movie and even in the hands of Ron Howard, best known for more blockbuster-aimed fare, the film version surprisingly succeeds on many levels including the most difficult - making the suject of maths interesting. "A Beautiful Mind" contains some of the most powerful performances of the year from its two leads, and a story which has its moments that truly grip you, nevertheless one can't help but feel that what we are seeing is the Hollywood sanitised version of the story whilst other elements included are purely there to make the subject matter more digestible to mainstream audiences (eg. the bar pickup 'blond' scene) even if they're very well done.
The acting is what truly shines here, Crowe once again shows off an amazing talent - the role is extremely demanding and requires a combination of arrogance, introversion, intelligence, occasional wit, and a superiority complex all in one. He never falters for a second and if the sloppy sentimental tone of the last 20 minutes didn't get in the way, his performance here would match that he gave as Jeffrey Wigand two years ago in "The Insider". Proving an equal to Crowe though is Connelly who looks radiant and holds her own, giving us a role of a very clever, frank and funny young woman who shares great chemistry with Crowe even during some of the film's more harrowing and very unromantic scenes. Supporting talent sadly don't get to shine much in their roles - Ed Harris seems wasted in a Government Agent role that could've been done by anyone, same goes for Christopher Plummer. Its only really Paul Bettany as an extroverted roommate that succeeds at reaching anywhere near the level of the leads.
Goldsman's script gives us a surprisingly adult take on the world of mental ability, and while some of the dialogue and character development isn't at the level it should be, the actors help overcome the little flaws. Still the main problem with the film is one not so easily excised, and one I'm sure many people won't even notice. What separates a good biopic from a great one is to give us a person who not only overcomes obstacles, but someone who is just as flawed (if not more so) than we are. The filmmakers here have given us a look at Nash's life as seen through rose-colored glasses - its gushy at times and while it does focus on one major 'flaw' it conveniently cuts out a lot of the past history which would make the character more interesting - a previous marriage, gay love affairs, a public arrest, etc. All these elements which were in the book were not hinted or referenced at all in the movie. While understandably the studio comes back with the line that those elements are not part of the story they want to tell, with them missing your missing out on key bits of Nash's background and one can't help but feel the man's life has been cheapened by this whitewashing in order for Hollywood to earn a quick buck. As a result you get the feeling of an art house movie trying to be mainstream commercial - a formula that rarely works and while it does for the most part click, its still slightly off target.
Howard gives us what is basically 2/3 of the way to becoming a classic, a project which misses that last step and thus whilst not a 'Best Film of the Year' as the Oscars have deemed it, it has ended up being a extremely good film which certainly is amongst the Top Ten. Its more of a warm and likable "Finding Forrester" style tale than an edgy and excellent "American Beauty", and it certainly makes a difficult subject matter very engaging. - Garth Franklin
"A Beautiful Mind: 2-Disc Awards Edition"
DVD Details In Brief (Region 1)
Rating: PG-13
Runtime: 136mins
Versions: 16:9 Enhanced Widescreen, 4:3 Letterboxed
Aspect Ratio: 1.85: 1
Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1
Language & Sub-Titles: English, Spanish, French
Audio: Commentary Track 1 by Director Ron Howard.
Track 2 by Screenwriter Akiva Goldsman.
Documentaries: "Inside ABM: Making Of", Eight Featurettes
Clips: Deleted Scenes (w. commentary), Oscar Winner Reactions, Trailer, Soundtrack Ad, Storyboard Comparisons
Other: Filmographies, Production Notes
DVD-Rom: World Premiere Footage, Weblink
Region 1 vs. Region 4: No Region 4 Available. |
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DVD Review: The Two Disc 'Awards Edition' lives up to its title - its one of the best discs of the year so far. Video transfer is excellent - great use of colour and black with very natural skin and structure tones, shadows are spot on, edges are perfect to give a sharp level of detail with only a very brief sign of aliasing when difficult fabrics (eg. Bettany's coat in the library scene) come into play, and no grain that I could see. Audio isn't as good - whilst the score plays nice and richly throughout, the sound FX are somewhat disappointing and very localised with little use of surround. Balance between elements though is good and dialogue is clear throughout. On top of this is two commentary tracks with Director Ron Howard in the first talking non-stop about general production stuff - there's some good stories, esp. the real life Nash ones, and lots of technical details even if its a little overdone on the self-fladulation at times. Goldsman talks mostly about what happens on screen though every now and then touches upon the film's interesting and very well laid out structure (though gets weak when he starts talking about things outside his role - eg. cinematography).
Also on Disc 1 are the deleted scenes with optional Ron Howard commentary (Howard actually speaks in general about cut scenes in a voiceover on the sub-menu). There's EIGHTEEN sequences here, totalling in about 26 minutes of extra footage with each scene proving of varying (but decent) video/audio quality. Most of them were cut for pace which is understandable as many scenes of what was missing were unneeded though quite likable anyway - its hinted that Nash invented the 'Hex' game, Crowe has a nightmare that Connelly is caught in a nuclear blast, Connelly visits the factory where John was working for the Government, Crowe and Plummer do some word playing on the institute's lawn (Ron Howard's dad cameos in this), a failed time passage idea, and a different version of the Nobel Prize speech where the audience disappears. Rounding it out are filmographies for seven cast and three crew, the production notes and access to DVD-Rom feature.
Disc Two launches with eight featurettes covering all sorts of areas and ranging from 5-10 mins. 'A Beautiful Partnership' is a'Mutual Admiration Society' type piece with Grazer and Howard talking about how they landed the rights and what business skills they like in each other. "Inside a Writer's Mind" is more interesting and about how the script came about, ideas were changed, etc. "Meeting John Nash" has Howard talking about Nash combined with home video of Nash in a classroom with Howard and showing his work (its interesting to see how cognitive and functional he is). 'Accepting the Nobel Prize' has the actual fooage from the Nobel Prize ceremony 1994 where Nash received his title and its NOTHING like what's in the film. 'Casting RC & JC' has Howard and Grazer talking about picking the leads and how difficult it was to choose. 'The Process of Age Progression' looks at the various stages of makeup (nine in all for Crowe) throughout the film in certain stages with Greg Cannon discussing the 'flow' and when it concentrates on the subtler first stages its quite interesting (Crowe actually wore fake teeth throughout to produce an overbite). 'Creation of the Special FX' has Digital Domain rep Kevin Mack showing examples of the more obvious shots (the glowing numbers, tie, stars, etc) and some of the surprisingly subtle bits (the baby was never in the bathtub, the girl running through a flock of pigeons which don't fly off). Finally, 'Scoring the Film' has a surprisingly relaxed James Horner talking about how his music 'evolves' because its such an abstract thing (yep, its a wank) though the beautiful Charlotte Church gets to chime in too. Buried amidst the list of featurettes is 'Storyboard Comparison' - a very well put together bit with five scenes (two of which were deleted) allowing you to see both the storyboards and final film version in comparison or separately.
"Inside A Beautiful Mind" is a 22.5 minute behind the scenes promo done early last year (post Golden Globes, pre-Oscars) and while its somewhat generic (and the featurettes prove much more informative) there's some nice bits including short sound bites from the real John Nash. One interesting addition is the inclusion of the 4-minute 'Best Film' acceptance speech from this year's Oscars, along with 30-second grabs from the press room with Connelly, Goldsman, Howard & Grazer - all shown in full screen high quality video (and yes Connelly is there in that dress). After a 40-second generic video promo, 'Now Showing' delivers four 30-second commercials for universal films ("Apollo 13", "The Family Man", "K-Pax" & "Patch Adams") along with short outtakes/BTS clips for each. Finally comes a TV spot for the film's soundtrack, the slickly put together trailer, and a list of organisations who are able to help the mentally ill or handicapped. Its a astonishingly well put together disc set and definitely worthy of adding to your collection. - Garth Franklin
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