There's little doubt that "A Beautiful Mind" is an excellent film. There's also little doubt that it was buoyed from buzz to Oscar acclaim by hype, strategic PR, and a gullible public. Taken in and of itself the film is rather ordinary among excellent films and not worthy of much of the critical acclaim it garnered. I personally found much of the film uninteresting, tedious, and downright boring. After all, how does one relate to someone whose accomplishments are so abstract as to be buried in esoteric symbolism and someone whose illness is so intangible as to be a state of mind? The beauty of mathematics and the war with the demons of delusions were not brought sufficiently into focus by the film which spent too much time trying to develop a rather uninteresting character, making his delusions our delusions, spicing it up with a car chase and shootout, fleshing out the mental ghosts, and showing the principal's eccentricism with endless scribbling on window glass. Compensate for the hype, keep expectations low, and enjoy.