A Beautiful Mind starring Russell Crowe

Have you ever dealt with anybody who suffered from schizophrenia?

John Nash is brilliant math graduate student at Princeton University. He’s pressured into publishing works, however, he can’t think of a great idea for his paper. He finally comes up with a new concept which he publishes and garners him a spot at MIT. While at Princeton, he becomes friends with his roommate, Charles, and later, he meets Charles’ niece, Marcee.

He also dates his student, Alicia, and they fall in love. John also works for the secret service, trying to decipher cryptic codes in magazines and periodicals. He’s obsessed with breaking these codes and the walls of his office are covered with newspapers as he tries to decipher these messages while trying to escape from the Russians.

***SPOILER

Then, John has a breakdown and it’s discovered that he has schizophrenia. His wife, Alicia, wrongly believed that Charles and Marcee were real people since John spoke of them so often. John has to suffer through intense therapy and finally decides to stop his medication – although he still sees these “people” (Charles, Marcee, the government workers/agents, etc.) he realizes these people are not real and are figments of his imagination.

This movie really made me think about schizophrenia. I wondered about the human mind and the way it worked…how can you imagine somebody so hard that you actually see them, talk to them, think that they’re real over a number of years – not realizing that you were talking to no one? I wondered if the part of our brain that controls dreams and imaginations – well, if that part of our brain, goes haywire/wrong, then, maybe that would make your mind really “see” things/people who are not real?

John even shook hands with Charles and he hugged Marcee. He could touch these imaginary people, too?

Just knowing that you can see, touch, and feel people whom are not there blows my mind. When people witnessed John talking to his “friends” they just saw him talking to dead air.

Overall the movie was pretty good, but, I probably won’t watch it again anytime soon.

So, have you ever dealt with schizophrenia in your life – either yourself, or known someone with this illness? What happened? Did the treatment work?

If you were held in bondage by someone wicked, could you rely on a mortal man to save you?

Well, the people of Oz were waiting for a real wizard to save them from the wicked witch. This movie was entertaining, and it contains some elements from the classic Judy Garland film. Also, there were elements taken from the novel, The Wizard Of Oz.

Oscar (Oz) is a con-man/magician in Kansas. He breaks ladies’ hearts, while doing magic tricks in a carnival. He jumps into a hot air balloon to escape the wrath of the carnival’s Strongman. He’s then swept away into the land of Oz in the midst of a cyclone.

The people in Oz have been waiting for him, they see him as their savior since it’s been prophesied that he would come. Of course there are witches, both good and evil, but, the movie had an strange twist with the witches. If I told you more about them, it would spoil the story.

The Wizard had some special people to accompany him while he searched for the wicked witch. One of his companions was a China doll who had broken legs. The China doll was not in the original Wizard of Oz film, but, I do recall in The Wizard of Oz novel, that Dorothy and her friends traveled through the land of China – where everything was made of China and the people and objects were breakable. The Wizard’s other companion was a winged, talking monkey.

The special effects for this movie were amazing, and it was the perfect prequel to the The Wizard of Oz classic. The film was also laced with a small amount of humor, too.

I kind of felt like the people of Oz: The Quadlings, The Tinkers, The Munchkins, etc. viewed The Wizard as if he were God, Jesus Christ himself, coming to save them from the throes of Satan (the Wicked Witch).

Overall, a good movie. Have you seen this movie? If not, are you planning on seeing it? How do you think this movie compares to the classic?

~Cecelia Dowdy~