A Beautiful Mind parents guide

A Beautiful Mind Parent Guide

Overall A-

Based on the tortured life of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., director Ron Howard champions the man who teeters on greatness, falls victim to a mental illness and fights back to accept the Nobel Prize in 1994.

Release date January 5, 2002

Violence C+
Sexual Content C+
Profanity C
Substance Use B-

Why is A Beautiful Mind rated PG-13? The MPAA rated A Beautiful Mind PG-13 for intense thematic material, sexual content and a scene of violence.

Run Time: 135 minutes

Parent Movie Review

DIRECTOR RON HOWARD delves into the delusional world of paranoid schizophrenia in A Beautiful Mind. Based on the tortured life of mathematician John Forbes Nash Jr., Howard champions the man who teeters on greatness, falls victim to a mental illness and fights back to accept the Nobel Prize in 1994.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) - Official site In 1947, Nash (Russell Crowe) enters the halls of Princeton as a graduate student with the top thinkers of his time. Obsessed with finding an original thought, he shuns classes and schoolmates to scribble scientific notes on the windowpanes of his boarding room and the library. His extraordinary reasoning abilities eventually lead him to the discovery of a revolutionary economic theory, but his deficient social graces and odd behaviors make him an outcast with most of his peers. Befriended by his boisterous roommate, Charles (Paul Bettany), the gifted mathematician goes on to earn a doctorate and take up teaching at MIT. After the Pentagon uses his code-breaking skills to decipher incoming enemy messages, a furtive CIA agent, William Parcher (Ed Harris), recruits Nash for a top-secret military operation.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) - Official site In the meantime, the studious bachelor is smitten by the romantic advances of one of his students who coaxes the tentative teacher into the heady and illogical world of love. But shortly after marrying Alicia (Jennifer Connelly), the lines between reality and fantasy begin to blur.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) - Official siteWhile the unsettling depictions of early medical treatments, domestic disruptions caused by his disease, a scene of heavy gunfire, and inclusion of moderate language make this remarkable story better suited for families with older teens, the film unfolds a world where nothing is sure. Strong performances by Crowe, Connelly and Harris give credit to the real life sufferers who function in a society where mental illness is often eschewed.

Battling his delusions and fears with snippets of humor and a penchant for logic, Nash struggles to bring reason and value to a life haunted by unseen demons and in time learns to trust in the exponential and intuitive power of love.

Starring Russell Crowe, Jennifer Connelly, Christopher Plummer, Paul Bettany. Running time: 135 minutes. Theatrical release January 5, 2002. Updated

A Beautiful Mind Parents' Guide

What are some examples of Nash using humor to deal with his illness? Do you think humor can assist in the healing process?

How did Alicia deal with her husband’s schizophrenia? How does her commitment to their marriage affect the way she reacts to her husband’s plight? Do you think her choices affected the outcome of Nash’s illness?

To read Nash’s own brief account of his life’s experiences, go to www.nobel.se/economics/laureates/1994/nash-autobio.html. For a general overview of what schizophrenia is and what symptoms accompany the disease, see www.schizophrenia.com/family/schizintro.html

Home Video

Related home video titles:

John Travolta stars in Phenomenon, a film about a man who acquires amazing intelligence after an unlikely event on his birthday. Jimmy Stewart’s Harvey is the story of man who sees a six-foot-tall bunny, and how his family deals with his imaginary friend.

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