Excuse me, Russell? Those newspapers aren't actually in braille.

If you’re like me, you often sit in a darkened theater thinking, “You know what’s wrong with this film? Not enough math.” Then along comes a movie like A Beautiful Mind (or Pi, another film about a tragically obsessive mathematician) and it’s like a little slice of mathy heaven.

A Beautiful Mind is about (or, as the credits say, “inspired by events from the life of”) real-life mathematician John Forbes Nash, but you don’t need to understand the Pythagorean theorem to enjoy this fascinating movie.

We first meet Nash, played by Russell Crowe, in graduate school, where he quickly earns the adjectives “brilliant” and “eccentric.” His arrogance and ambition put him at odds with his fellow students; his inability to focus his ideas frustrates the faculty. Nash is searching for a “truly original idea,” one that will ensure his place in history. In one of the most charming scenes ever written about math, he finds it while he and his colleagues try to pick up women in a bar. Soon, he’s revolutionized economic theory.

"See, I told you this would be more fun than sitting home calculating pi."

He goes on to do national security work at MIT, where his amusing lack of social skills don’t keep a pretty coed (Jennifer Connelly) from falling in love with and marrying him. But this young mathematician-on-the-move has a little problem. It seems he’s not just charmingly odd, he’s schizophrenic. The rest of the movie details his battle against this heartbreaking condition.

This is the kind of character that actors love to play, with plenty of quirky little ticks and big, showy scenes. At first, I found Russell Crowe’s performance to be overly mannered. His strange vocal cadences and perennially bent neck seemed gimmicky. But as I got to know the character better he won me over. Crowe’s skilled portrayal of Nash’s anguish and confusion, his fear and shame, hits all the right emotional marks. I think he’s earned that Oscar he got last year for Gladiator.

I’d also like to give special mention to Jennifer Connelly as Nash’s wife Alicia, who got a lot more than she bargained for when she married her math teacher. Connelly is believably conflicted as a woman who stands by her man during the darkest of times, without turning Alicia into a hopelessly devoted saint. She never lets us forget how much of a price she’s paying.

Math makes him sad.

The real star of the show, though, is the script by Akiva Goldsman. (Who knew the writer of Lost in Space could pull it off?) Goldsman portrays Nash’s illness with simple but clever techniques that help the audience understand what it’s like to be schizophrenic. The script deals with complicated issues: How closely is Nash’s genius tied in with his illness? Can he have one without the other? It is to Goldsman’s credit that the movie raises these questions without offering simplistic answers.

The direction, by the always competent, if usually uninspired, Ron Howard, heightens the mood and tension without lapsing into melodrama. I believe this is his best work. The story is compellingly told, though some of the jumps forward in time, as Nash ages, are a little jarring.

A Beautiful Mind is not always an easy movie to watch. America in the 1950s wasn’t a kind place for the mentally ill, and Nash’s treatment in an asylum is barbarically unenlightened. But there is much to be enjoyed here, too, including wonderful flashes of much-needed humor, and a genuinely moving, human story of a man transcending extraordinary problems with love and dignity.

Gorilla Pants rating: 3.5 out of 4 bananas