Russell Crowe proves he's not just a hard man in this film based on the real life of mathematician John Forbes Nash.

The film is not really about his mathematical discoveries, but they are mentioned in passing. It shows him lecturing about the Riemann Zeta Function that I read about in Prime Obsession. In fact there is a recommendation from Nash on the cover of the book.

The film is mainly about his problems with schizophrenia. From what I've read these were mainly auditory hallucinations and so not as vivid as portrayed in the film, but it still made him highly paranoid and resulted in him having some fairly nasty treatments that may not have helped much.

Crowe puts in a good performance. It seems to be a cliche that playing someone with a handicap is a good way to get an Oscar, but he didn't quite get there. The rest of the cast are also good and the period detail looks right to me. John Nash was consulted for the film which may be why it does not mention things like his other marriages, but I don't think that makes it a worse film. It shows how hard it can be to deal with mental illness whilst still being an entertaining film.

Details and trivia at IMDB.