Best Actress in a Supporting Role 2001: Jennifer Connelly in A Beautiful Mind

Jennifer Connelly won the Oscar from her only nomination for her performance as Alicia Narde Nash in A Beautiful Mind.

A Beautiful Mind is a fine movie about brilliant but asocial mathematician John Nash  and his struggle to come to terms with his paranoid schizophrenia. It's an uneven movie that starts off as extremely engaging but muddles a bit in the second half and I don't really think Ron Howard's direction was particularly worthy of its win: it's a movie that relies more on the writing than the direction. Speaking of the writing, it's very good although the Oscar might have been a bit too much. My favorite aspect of the movie is probably the score which is downright beautiful. Overall, it's an occasionally affecting and impressive but ultimately a bit flawed experience. 

Jennifer Connelly's win in this category is usually considered as a case of category fraud but, while she is definitely a borderline case, I would actually agree she is supporting here: there are scenes from her perspective mid-way through the movie but she does not get the same amount of focus as Russell Crowe's and ultimately I consider the movie as mostly John Nash' story rather than the story of his marriage (unlike The Danish Girl, where the movie focuses on Lili as much as it focuses on Gerda). The character of Alicia first appears about forty minutes into the movie as a student in John Nash' class who immediately impresses him due to her intelligence and charm: Connelly is technically fine in those scenes although I believe she could have done a little more - she's beautiful and she's rather charming but she never becomes the luminous presence the movie suggests she is. She is completely fine and develops a decent chemistry with Russell Crowe but I felt she could have been a much more engaging and lively presence - it all feels competent and nicely done, but also a little bit underwhelming, especially the scene in which she explains love's nature to John: the writing is a bit cheesy but she doesn't do much to help especially due to her choice to basically whisper throughout the whole scene with little to no modulation in her voice. She fares much better at portraying her character's intelligence and determination and prevents her character from becoming a passive, one-dimensional love interest because she conveys a perceptive, bright mind behind her character's beauty. 

I think her best moments are in the middle of the movie when she gets much more to do and she actually does a great job: she does an excellent job at portraying Alicia's growing desperation as she feels John becoming more and more distant from her and she makes Alicia's attempts to connect with her husband rather moving. She is terrific in her conversation with Dr. Rosen (Christopher Plummer) in which she has to express a wide range of emotions and she nails all of them, from denial of her husband's illness to confusion to final acceptance. I also found her to be extremely compelling in the few scenes involving Alicia's search for information about John's "secret job" and she shows her determination with convincing grit and strength. The highlight of her whole performance is in my opinion the scene in which Alicia visits John at the psychiatric facility he's been sent to and tells him about his illness and hallucinations: it's a brilliantly acted scene on both ends with Connelly being particularly heartbreaking in her portrayal of her character's exhaustion and distress but also unending love and support. 

Her performance in the last third is unfortunately a bit of a mixed bag that features both great moments and surprisingly mediocre ones. For example, she is very good at portraying Alicia's frustrations over the lack of passion in her marriage with John but her monologue to an old friend about her life with John is a surprisingly empty and disappointing moment that just sort of comes and goes without leaving any sort of impression whatsoever - it could have been an emotionally powerful scene and a great occasion for Connelly to further explore both her character's unsatisfaction and her love for her husband, but she underplays the moment to the point that it ends up being completely forgettable. Her reaction when she finds out John has relapsed is pitch-perfect but when she angrily confronts him for almost letting their son drown in the bathtub she overacts way too much (her shouting of "There's no one here" is so overdone it's almost distracting). The most famous scene of her performance is probably her "You want to know what's real?" monologue and while I don't necessarily find it to be a particularly amazing scene as some do it's indeed a very powerful moment that Connelly plays with just the right amount of grace and warmth. It's a very moving moment and her chemistry with Crowe is probably at its strongest there. She is also quietly effective in the final scene of the movie delivering some impressive teary-eyed, proud looks. 

Overall, this is somewhat problematic but overall good effort from a talented actress: it's a very uneven turn with ups and downs but when she is good, then she is really effective and she has a few truly remarkable scenes over the course of the movie. In the end, I personally believe the good of her performance outshine the not so good and there's no denying that she has some poignant and affecting moment, but her missteps prevent her performance from becoming truly great. 

3.5/5