August 2008

The film has the most beautiful speech at the end when Nash won the Nobel Prize.

"I've always believed in numbers and the equations and logics that lead to reason.

But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask,

"What truly is logic?"

"Who decides reason?"

My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional — and back.

And I have made the most important discovery of my career, the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.

I'm only here tonight because of you.

You are the reason I am.

You are all my reasons.

The mathematician had difficulty separating what is real and what is delusional. Similarly, the movie is composed of plots that are factual and fictional.  In real life, the couple was divorced and Nash never gave an acceptance speech. Nash's love life seems to be more colorful, and his wife seems to have less significant role in his struggle with schizophrenia.

The reality destroys the delusion that love can cure and love triumph all, a grand theme that movies, including this one, has employed for decades to earn audience's tears. It never fail. But this shows again that the kind of love in movies is a delusion, albeit one that everyone is inspired and is a victim to, one that won't end you up in a mental hospital.

The classic novel "Dream in the Red Chamber" also deals with truth and delusion. Walter Lippmann talked about the world "in our little head." Buddhism, of course, claims that pretty much life is a delusion. Reasons and logic are vulnerable when applied to this topic. Because really, who can call who insane?