Movie Review

 A brilliant and heartbreaking film about a academic genius who suffered from schizophrenia.  

I will quote or paraphrase the film chronologically in terms of John Nash's possible or obvious schizophrenic symptoms. In italics, I also highlight instances where he receives positive care that helps him towards healing, often spearheaded by his wife Alicia and Dr Rosen.

1. Nash says to Charles (imaginary roommate) "I don't like people much."

2. A classmate calls him a "psycho."

3. Nash cracks his room window with his forehead, and Charles throws Nash's desk out of the window.

4. Nash, at the Pentagon, asks "Who's Big Brother", in regard to the imaginary Parcher. Parcher says "Big Brother at your service."

5. Nash says "I'm a lone world...people don't like me."

6. Parcher explains the Russian bomb conspiracy theory to Nash, including how the New Freedom has sleeper agents that communicates codes in newspapers and magazines. Parcher calls Nash "the best natural code breaker" and implants a radium diode with access codes in Nash's arm. Nash's work becomes "classified." He is a "spy."

7. Alicia asks Nash "You do eat, don't you?" Nash replies "On occasions."

8. At the Governor's house, Nash sees people watching him.

9. Nash drops letters at  mailbox, using the code in his forearm.

10. Nash sees Marcee, Charle's niece for the first time.

11. Nash tells Charles about his lifechanging 'new assignment" and "I met a girl."

12. Nash sees Parcher in a car often. Parcher tells Nash "They're following us", a car chase ensues, there is a gunshot and car crash. Parcher tells Nash to "Take the god damn gun." Nash says "No!" The "enemy" car drops into the water.

13. Alicia asks Nash "Talk to me!"

14. Nash tells Parcher "This is not what I signed up for," "Alicia's pregnant."

15. Nash sees Parcher leave via an exit door. Sol, his associate asks "John, you alright?", not seeing Parcher.

16. Parcher is outside Nash's house at night, and there are spies.

Nash: Turn off the light.

Alicia: What is wrong with you?

Alicia: I'm not leaving.

17. Marcee calls Nash "Uncle John."

18. At a lecture, Parcher comes in, Nash runs away.

Dr Rosen: Let's avoid a scene...I'm a psychiatrist.

Nash hits someone. He is dragged screaming and kicking. He is given an injection of Thorazine and loses consciousness. He is in restraints.

19. Dr Rosen interviews Nash at McArthur Psychiatric Hospital.

Nash: You made a mistake...I don't know anything.

Nash is shackled to a a chair. He sees Charles.

Nash: Charles? 

Rosen: Who are you seeing? There's no one there.

Nash: Call the department of defence, I'm being held against my will.

20. Rosen: John has schizophrenia.

Alicia: He deals with conspiracies.

Rosen: In his world. Rosen explains Nash has been suffering hallucinations since graduate school at Princeston. There was no Charles.

Rosen: [His] lost his grip on reality...[we have to] show what's real and what's in his mind [and] see what he's been working on.

21. Alicia asks Nash's associates about him. She visits his "crazy" office with paper everywhere.

A: Why didn't you say something?

They show her the abandoned house where Nash drops his letters.

22. Nash tells Alcia in the hospital "We just have to talk quietly...they may be listening." He mentions "a treat of catastrophic proportions."

A: Stop! Stop! Stop! Sol followed you...It isn't real. There's no conspiracy. It's in your mind. You're sick.

23. At the hosptial Nash has self-harmed. He is digging into his forearm, trying to find the supposedly imbedded diode.

Nash: The implant's gone! I can't find it."

24. Nash is strapped into a bed. Insulin is administered. He undergoes electroshock therapy.

25. Alicia talks about Nash not visiting Princeton because "he's ashamed."

Alicia: The delusions have passed, with medication and a low stress environment...

Alicia talks about her experience as wife and carer "Obligation or guilt over wanting to leave. Rage. I force myself to see the man that I married."

26. Sol visits Nash.

Nash points to an empty chair and says: You've met Harvey? Relax. It's okay. There's no point in being nuts if you can't have a little fun.

Nash: I'm stuck with me... If I dazzle them ...[they might] reinstate me. But it's difficult with medication, it's hard to see the solution.

Sol: take it easy.

27. Alicia tells Nash "Try leaving the house, talk to people...[try] taking out the garbage."

Alicia asks Nash: Who were you talking to.

Nash says the garbage man.

Alica: [They] don't come at night.

The garbage man walks by their window.

Nash laughs.

Alicia: Sorry.

28. Alicia attempts to have sex with Nash. Nash is not interested. 

Alicia: Is it the medication?

Nash nods.

Alicia goes into the bathroom and breaks the mirror, throwing a glass at it. She cries.

29. Nash is not taking his pills. He begins to see codes in the papers again. He sees a soldier and follows him. Parcher appears and says, "it's been a while." 

Nash: You're not real. 

Parcher: The bomb is in the US.

Inside a shed are military equipment and men. 

Parcher calls Dr Rosen a "quack":...schizophrenic break from reality...psychological bullshit. Look at me - do I look like I'm imagined? I can let the world know what you did.

Nash: I was so scared you weren't real.

30. A storm is coming. Alicia finds the shed and inside it is filled with paper from wall to ceiling. She races back to the house to rescue her son from drowning in the bathtub, with Nash unaware of the danger.

Nash: Charles was watching him.

Alicia: There's no one here.

Nash: I couldn't t tell you...it's for your own protection.

Parcher: You got to stop her. I'm sorry John.

Parcher pulls out a gun and points it at Alcia.

Nash pushes Alicia into a wall and she falls. Alicia runs away.

Parcher: Finish her.

Nash realises the truth. He stops Alicia from driving away.

Nahs: She never gets old.

Nash realises Marcee can't be real.

31: Rosen: Why did you top your meds?

Nash: [because] I couldn't do my work, wouldn't help with the baby, I couldn't respond to my wife...think that's better than being crazy?

32. Rosen tells Alicia that Nash "needs to start on a higher run of insulin shocks and new medication"

Alicia: No

Rosen: schizophrenia is degenerative...some days maybe symptom free...[but it gets] worse over time. It's not math. You can't reason you way out of this, because your mind is where the problem is in the first place.

Nash: I can work it out

Rosen: Without treatment, John, the fantasies may take over. Entirely.

Alicia looks aghast.

33. Alicia has commitment papers to sign for the hospital.

Nash: Rosen's right, you shouldn't be here. I'm not safe anymore.

Alicia: Would you hurt me?

Nash: I don't know.

Alicia doesn't want Nash to go to the hospital.

Alicia: Rosen said to call if you tried to kill me or anything. You know what's real?

Alicia caresses Nash.

Alicia: I need to believe that something extraordinary is possible.

They embrace.

34. At Princeston, Nash holds Alicia's hanky. He visits Martin:

Martin: Jesus Christ.

Nash: [No.] My saviour complex takes on a completely different form.

Charles: Tell him you're a genius!

Nash: (hits desk with paper.) Is there a chance that you could ignore what I just did?

[Alicia says] fitting in, being part of a community might do some god. A certain level of attachment...familiar places and familiar people might help me elbow out [the] delusions. I was wondering if I could hang around.

Martin: Will you be needing an office?

Nash works out of the library.

35. At Princeton Nash "goes totally nuts" and has episodes:

talking to the imaginary, 'shouting "I;m not soldier" "There's no mission", "You're not real"

36.

Alicia: Stress tiggers delusions

Nash: Sometimes I miss talking to him (Charles)

Nash: Rosen's right, maybe I have to think about going back to the hopsital again.

Alicia shakes her head and holds his hands.

37. Charles: you can't ignore me forever

Nash: I won't talk to you again. I just can't.

He says goodbye to Marcee.

38. People make fun of Nash.

39. 1978 A student tells Nash "I'm studying your equilibrium." Nash gathers a circle of students at the library.

Nash: I might teach. I'm an acquired taste

Martin: Are they gone?

Nash: No. [They are] like with dreams and nightmares. [You] gotta t keep feeding them for them to stay alive. They're my past. Everybody's haunted by their past.

40. 1994 March

A stranger approaches Nash.

Nash asks a student: Can you see him? Forgive me I'm always suspicious of new people.

He is being considered for the Nobel Prize.

The Nobel Prize representative: The image of the Nobel is...

Nash: Oh, I see you came to see if I was crazy, if I'd screw everything up if I actually won...dance around the podium, strip naked and squawk like a chicken. Would I embarrass you?

Nash: I am crazy. I take the newer medication, but I still see things that are not here. I just choose not to acknowledge them. Like a diet of the mind. I choose to not indulge certain appetites. like my appetite for patterns, perhaps my appetite to imagine, to dream.

41. At the Nobel Prize ceremony 1994, Nash's speech

Nash: I've always believed in numbers...what truly is logic. After a lifetime, my quest has taken me through the physical, metaphorical, the delusional and back. [The] most important discovery...[is] it is only in love that...any logical reasons can be found. 

Nash looks at Alicia: You are all my reasons. He touches her hanky.

42.Alicia: What's wrong?

Nash sees Parcher, Charles and Marcee.

Nash: Nothing.

The End