A Beautiful Mind

Reviewed by:
Eric Alt

We were not one of those seduced by media hype and meaningless award presentations. And, surprisingly, the DVD for A Beautiful Mind—with its featurettes and interviews—only serves to reinforce our belief that John Nash’s story and theories are even less deserving of such a cliché-driven sapfest of a movie.

The real Nash makes an appearance in the special features via an informal camcorder interview with director Ron Howard. Nash explains his theories which, combined with the home movie quality and the bad sound, should make your eyes glaze over faster than a Krispy Kreme. But at least an effort is made to clarify some of the tougher questions. The rest of the disc contains commentaries (although Howard’s nasally voice is enough to drive you batty), deleted scenes (Do you need to see more “spinning camera means genius” shots? Or 10 minutes of Russell Crowe staring at a pebble? No, you don’t), and plenty of back-patting. However, for those who enjoyed the film or those who are curious to know more about Nash, this is a solid two-disc set worthy of a few more stars than we gave the film for its theatrical release.

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