Characters are the center of any film as there needs to be at least one character relatable to the audience. Most films are character-driven stories centered around how characters overcome their struggles. It is human nature to be interested in people with unusual talents, especially those with high intelligence and rare talent.
A Beautiful Mind, Rain Man, and Little Man Tate are films that explore these brilliant characters whose intelligence is both a gift and a curse to them.
‘Good Will Hunting’ (1997)
Will Hunting (Matt Damon) is a young man with a genius-level IQ, but instead of using his intelligence towards something substantial, he chooses to work as an MIT janitor. Professor Gerald Lambeau (Stellan Skarsgard) discovers Hunting’s talents after he currently answers two tough questions on the blackboard he hoped would challenge his students.
Hunting gets arrested for attacking a police officer, and Lambeau, who sees great potential in him, pleads for leniency on his behalf. He will receive less jail time if he agrees to study Mathematics under Lambeau’s provision and engage in psychotherapy sessions. Lambeau passes Hunting to Dr. Sean Maguire (Robin Williams), who had difficulty with Hunting but eventually helped him reach his full potential, mentally and professionally.
‘A Beautiful Mind’ (2001)
The multi-award-winning A Beautiful Mind is inspired by the true story of mathematician John Nash. The film follows Nash’s (Russell Crowe) life journey of being a mathematical genius who has schizophrenia. Nash gets an invitation from MIT to study encrypted enemy telecommunications, where he meets a mysterious William Parcher (Ed Harris), supposedly from the United States Department of Defense.
Parcher assigns him a classified task to look for hidden patterns in any media platforms such as magazines or newspapers to stall a Soviet plot against the United States. What started as a mission develops into an obsession, and his feelings of paranoia heighten as he begins to believe he is being followed. Nash had to learn to juggle his family life, professional life, and how to live with schizophrenia.
‘Hidden Figures’ (2016)
Hidden Figures is a biographical film based on the true story of three African-American women, namely Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer), and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe), the genius brains behind the space launch of astronaut John Glenn into orbit.
The space launch occurred during the Space Race, a spaceflight competition between the United States and the Soviet Union. Not only did they represent female empowerment in a male-dominated industry, but they were also the first few African-American women to work as NASA scientists. In 2022, NASA reported that “African Americans represent only 12 percent of its current workforce.”
‘Rain Man’ (1988)
Rain Man is a film that follows the journey of Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and that he has an autistic brother with savant syndrome, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman). Babbitt later learns that his father has left his $3 million fortune to the mental institution where Raymond lives. In the beginning, Charlie only attempts to have a relationship with his brother to gain access to his father’s fortune, but over time, Charlie starts to warm up to Raymond and starts to care for him.
Raymond’s character was inspired by a brilliant man named Kim Peek. He was born with macrocephaly, a condition where someone has an abnormally large brain. In Peek's case, he can remember everything (literally every detail or word) he reads or hears once.
‘Amadeus’ (1984)
Miloš Forman directed the 1984 period biographical film, Amadeus, based on the fictionalized life of one of the world’s most famous musical prodigies, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Italian composer Antonio Salieri (F. Murray Abraham) grow resentment towards the immensely talented Mozart (Tom Hulce) for his musical talent and indulgent lifestyle.
Salieri’s jealousy grows into an obsession, and he starts plotting schemes against Mozart, which he hopes will lead to his downfall and death. Salieri chooses to take opportunities to find out any piece Mozart is working on to claim it as his own, such as The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni, Requiem, The Magic Flute, and Confutatis. Throughout the film, Mozart doesn’t only deal with Salieri's trickery but also the personal struggles of family life and deteriorating health due to alcoholism. Despite producing many timeless pieces, the film ends with the death of Mozart, who died at 35.
‘The Imitation Game’ (2014)
The Imitation Game is a historical drama based on the biographical novel of Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges. Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) gets invited by the MI6 to help them decode Enigma, which cryptanalysts had deemed near impossible to crack. Turing, along with Joan Clarke (Keira Knightley) and his team, tries to analyze the messages while he builds a machine that he believes will decipher the codes.
Turing and his team eventually succeed in their mission, but things take a turn when the British authorities discover his homosexuality and imprison him for gross indecency. The film's conclusion indicated that Turing committed suicide, but Turing’s legacy of creating a universal computing machine has lived on through the widely used mathematical model in modern computers we use today.
‘Searching for Bobby Fischer’ (1993)
Searching for Bobby Fischer is based on the life of prodigy chess player Josh Waitzkin (Max Pomeranc), who developed an interest in chess after beating his father, Fred (Joe Mantegna), at just seven years old. Waitzkin’s hobby of watching players participating in speed chess at a park eventually leads him to a hustler named Vinnie (Laurence Fishburne), who teaches him the game of chess.
After Fred recognizes his son’s inevitable talent, he chooses to recruit a chess tutor called Bruce Pandolfini (Ben Kingsley) to hone his son’s chess-playing abilities. Tensions rise as Fred becomes increasingly obsessed with his son’s chess career, which ruins his relationships with his wife Bonnie (Joan Allen), Josh, and the chess tutor, Bruce. The film is rated 100% on Rotten Tomatoes.
‘Little Man Tate’ (1991)
Little Man Tate is Jodie Foster’s directorial debut, in which she also played Dede Tate, the mother of Fred Tate (Adam Hann-Byrd), the leading character. Fred is a seven-year-old child prodigy who shows every indication of being a great intellect, but it is also the sole reason his school friends choose to isolate him.
A former music prodigy turned psychologist, Jane Grierson (Dianne Wiest), becomes interested in Fred and wants to enroll him in her school for gifted children. Dede contests this idea as she wants Fred to have a normal childhood, but she quickly changes her mind after none of Fred’s friends show up at his birthday party. The film focuses on Fred's struggles to choose between living a “normal” life or live as the prodigy he is.
‘The Theory of Everything’ (2014)
The Theory of Everything is a biographical film based on the life of British physicist Stephen Hawking (Eddie Redmayne). During his study at the University of Cambridge, Hawking began a relationship with literature student Jane Wilde (Felicity Huffman). During his time at the University of Cambridge, his thesis topic of black holes in the creation of the universe is doubted by his friends and professors.
However, Hawking learns that he has lost control of his muscles and has motor neuron disease, which limits his mobility and ability to speak, swallow and breathe. Over time, he learns how to live with his condition and communicate with a spelling board. After being married for 30 years, Hawking and Jane get divorced but remain close friends and supportive of each other.
‘Pawn Sacrifice’ (2014)
The biographical film is based on the life of legendary chess player Bobby Fischer. Pawn Sacrifice tells the story of how Fischer (Tobey Maguire) became one of the most renowned chess players in the world by going against Soviet Grandmaster Boris Spassky (Liev Schreiber). However, as he prepares to participate in the World Chess Championship, the immense pressure becomes too much for him to handle. Fischer's paranoia and delusional psychosis made him believe he was being watched by the Soviet KGB.
Despite his paranoia, he still competed against Spassky in the championship. The game was not smooth sailing, but in the last round, Fischer made a never-seen-before chess move which impressed Spassky leading him to forfeit the game and giving Fischer a standing ovation. Fischer might have won the championship and earned worldwide respect, but his paranoia and delusions led to his ultimate downfall.