Ron Howard’s A Beautiful Mind (2001) very interestingly, and entertainingly, depicts John Nash’s (Russell Crowe) encounter and life long struggle with Schizophrenia. As a viewer, looking back at the film, I became very interested in the process of introducing the mental illness to the audience. From a director’s viewpoint, there are two ways to introduce this mentality. Does one choose to view Nash from the outside, and see his actions from the perspective of someone else? Or does one choose to view everything from Nash’s perspective? Without a doubt, the second option seems to be much more interesting, and attempts to paint a picture of what it is like to live with such a mental illness. So, we experience the start of the illness as Nash does, without recognition of its arrival. We meet his roommate Charles (Paul Bettany), whom we assume to be very real for a good portion of the film.

This friendship and association of family with Charles is integral to getting the audience to feel similarly to Nash when the truth is revealed. When we finally learn that Charles is not real, that he is a figment of Nash’s mind, we want to counter it just as much as Nash does. We hope that there is a misunderstanding, that there is some way that Charles didn’t show up in Princeton’s record books. It gives the audience the chance to experience what they know to be true to be turned upside down. That magical ability of film gives audience members a closer experience to what Nash experiences, leaving them to sympathize with him, as well as question their own worlds once they exit the theater.