🎬 Going in Blind: A Beautiful Mind (2001)
It's an old film but still spoiler warning if you haven't seen it!!
This film… absolutely beautiful. If you know me by now, you know I love a good biopic, and this one really hit hard on the feelings. I picked it completely at random, went in blind, knew nothing about it or the people involved, which honestly made it even better, because I was completely gripped from the start.
It follows John Nash, a brilliant mathematician who, from the beginning, comes across as a bit unusual in a circle of very intelligent men. At first, I thought it was simply giving “possibly on the autism spectrum” vibes, which, especially at the time, would have just seemed like odd behaviour to people, since mental health and mental illnesses weren’t really talked about. But then things slowly unravelled.
What makes the film so powerful is how well it draws you into his perspective. I genuinely thought his roommate was a figment of his imagination, like an “imaginary friend” to keep him company, but then the whole spy mission plot kicked off, and I fully believed it was real. Honestly, right up until nearly the end, I didn’t suspect it was all part of his schizophrenia. I’m still shocked thinking about it. The fact that the film managed to make me fall for it too, shows how easy it is to understand how he could believe it.
The weight on his family, especially his wife and baby, was devastating to watch, the toll it took on them really hit me. But the fact that things did get better in the long run was so wholesome. That speech at the end honestly broke me in the best way, I was just sitting there like T^T.
This story hit close to home for personal reasons, so it was incredibly insightful, a reminder of just how much our minds can trick us. And I just admire Nash so much. I didn’t know about him before, but the way he learned to ignore these characters, to fight against what his brain was telling him… it’s truly fascinating and admirable. Of course the film condenses years of struggle into two hours, but even so, it conveys the weight of it beautifully.
It brought me to tears, and I’m so glad I saw it. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 8/10
