WARNING: THE SECOND ACT TWIST OF THIS PICTURE IS GIVEN AWAY IN THE FOLLOWING REVIEW. SEE THE MOVIE FIRST IF YOU DON'T WANT IT SPOILED.

When I first saw "A Beautiful Mind" in the theaters, I felt it was a very well made picture, but didn't quite like it as much as I could for some reason. After the picture was released on DVD, my opinion has changed entirely.

Director Ron Howard (Far and Away, Apollo 13) sets a benchmark for himself with this picture, as does Imagine Entertainment. The production group has been known for very technically challenging pictures i.e. shooting Apollo space sequences on the "Vomit Comet," capturing the actual conditions of weightlessness.

Howard decided to shoot "A Beautiful Mind" completely in the same sequence as scripted, a very rare feat for productions due to the kind of budget it takes. What is the point? The challenge of portraying the picture's true life protagonist, Nobel Prize winner John Nash, was far easier for Russell Crowe (Gladiator) to achieve in a linear fashion.

The picture follows the adult achievements of Nash, a mysterious genius from West Virginia, starting with this years at Princeton, when he invents an equilibrium and changes the face of modern economic theory, ending in present day. Eventually, his success at Princeton leads to a position with the U.S. Department of Defense, housed in a lab at MIT with two schoolmates.

While sort of teaching at MIT, Nash meets two people who would change his life; one, a student named Alicia who would become his wife, and two, William Parcher, a spy for the DOD.

Parcher, after learning of Nash's mental ability to break codes, drafts him into locating a splinter military unit from Russia. This unit has smuggled an atomic bomb into America, and its Nash's job to search through periodicals, looking for codes sent between bad guys. In short, Nash becomes a spy himself.

However, Nash's dexterity for the new assignment is challenged as his paranoia gets the better of him, thinking everyone's after him, fearing the safety of his newly pregnant wife. Alicia gets worried about Nash's odd behavior and calls for him to be temporarily committed to a mental health hospital, where doctors and the viewer discover Nash actually suffers from schizophrenia. The world Nash was living, and our gripping storyline, was completely made up in his head.

The second half of the movie is Nash's struggle to get better; first, through medicines and insulin shock therapies. After his pills interfere with his work, hinder his abilities as a father and husband, and kill any erection he hopes to have again, Nash goes off his medication. Quickly, he finds his usual band of imagined cohorts back in his life, making trouble. With the love and determination of his wife, Nash strikes out to build a stable life for himself and figure out a way to rid himself of these delusions on his alone, despite hospitalization recommendations from doctors.

The picture is very enthralling, especially when we find out about Nash's ailment. Nash, as a character, had superior writing by screenplay adapter Akiva Goldsman (I, Robot, A Time to Kill), based on the book by Sylvia Nasar. Academy Award® winner Goldsman's next venture with director Ron Howard and Russell Crowe is "Cinderella Man," about depression era boxer Jim Braddock. After that, Goldsman and Howard plug away on Dan Brown's popular novel, "The Da Vinci Code," starring Tom Hanks.

Crowe gives the performance of his career. I know I say that a lot about certain actors, but when I say it, I mean it. I do not think Crowe will top this portrayal. "The Insider" was the only movie I've seen him in which came close to this caliber.

The very gorgeous Jennifer Connelly (House of Sand and Fog) defines her adult career as John's wife Alicia, for whom she won an Academy Award® portrayal. She doesn't have a single flaw in her role. Without saying much, she can always tell the viewer what she's thinking in every scene.

Paul Bettany (Master and Commander) appears as Nash's Princeton roommate, giving a set of laughs, while Ed Harris (Polluck) offers a special nervousness to the picture as Parcher.

Rounding out the supporting cast are several notable faces, including Adam Goldberg (Saving Private Ryan), Josh Lucas (Sweet Home Alabama), Anthony Rapp (Road Trip), Christopher Plummer (Cold Creek Manor) and Judd Hirsh (TV's Taxi). There isn't a single weak link in the cast. Director Howard's casting was dead on.

The visual style of the picture was as grandiose, as it needed to be, when Nash's imagination was in full swing. However, it was realistic enough to fool us. My favorite bits of filmmakers' efforts are subtle hints throughout the picture, letting you know which characters are real and which are in Nash's imagination. This is why I began to love the picture more and more with each viewing. I'd catch a new trick, foreshadowing the protagonist's illness.

The DVD disc is loaded with special features, including every Academy Award® winner on the production (Connelly, Howard and producer Brian Grazer) after accepting that year. There is also a solid interview with Goldsman and another with Howard about shooting the picture in sequence; highly interesting stuff. The disc is very well worth the purchase.

Benn - Where's the Humanity?