I shouldn't have, but I did.

I watched A Beautiful Mind tonight while I "packed."  (I actually did get a tiny bit done, but not very much it's true.)  I enjoy this movie very much.  It makes me wish I was a genius or had autism or something that made me more unique.  And I think that Russell Crowe does an amazing job.  I also like Paul Bettany.

This movie is about a mathematical genius who struggles with schizophrenia.  It's about perseverance and trials and commitment and frustration and craziness.  But I realized at the end that it's mainly about love.  In his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize at the end of the movie, Nash (the genius) says a few things and then begins to address his wife.  He says he has always believed in numbers, in logic and reason.  Then he says his question is what truly is logic and who decides reason.  He says his quest took him through much, and then, as he continues, he looks down at his wife from the podium.  He says the most important discovery of his career, and life, was that it was only in the mysterious equations of love that any logical reasons could be found.  Then, looking his wife in the eye and speaking to her as if no one else was in the giant room, he finishes his speech: "I am only here tonight because of you. You are the reason I am.  You are all my reasons.  Thank you."

Now, this portrayal is much more effective in the movie itself, and it is completely fictional as far as I know.  It was made by Hollywood to make bank.  But, and maybe I'm exposing myself too much here, I think it's beautiful.  A man whose logical, rational mind was exceptional discovered that love was the only reason he existed.  In the movie, his wife suffers with him and stays with him and teaches him to accept her love and find his own heart.  This movie isn't about math, it's about love.

Is the portrayal of love in this movie too ideal?  Is it only nice because it's a short movie, simplified and edited and written to contain the most important parts and move an audience and make a point?  I don't know.  Probably.  Maybe.   But I hope it's not too ideal.