Best Actor 2001: Russell Crowe in A Beautiful Mind

Russell Crowe received his third nomination of three for playing a troubled mathematician John Nash. Nash is a brilliant thinker but he also suffers from severe mental problems.

A Beautiful Mind is partially just a showcase for Crowe as it follows him through all of Nash's problems and breakthroughs. I found the movie's twist of sorts to be very interesting the first time I watched it but after that I will admit it becomes a lot less effective, just like the movie as a whole. I do not hate it like many do but I do think it definitely could have been better.

One of the things that is good about the movie is Crowe's performance. Crowe properly does his accent, he never overdoes it or under does it. The accent just aids the performance. Crowe plays Nash when he fully believes he is sane as a smart but socially awkward man with the proper intelligence and believability the part needs. In the scenes where Crowe is telling of his different ideas and mathematical thoughts, he never overdoes what the character is saying but rather conveys the ideas in just the right manner. Crowe then goes to his scenes of insanity which again he never overplays which an actor could easily do. Instead Crowe really seems to be a man with a real disorder not just acting like he has a disorder. Crowe truly sells his dementia which is rather difficult but Crowe gets it. Later on Crowe ages which neither his performance nor the makeup sells but that is just the ending and does really effect the whole performance.Overall though Crowe develops an interesting portrait of a rather strange man, that has the right balance of eccentricity and realism .
For this he gets: