Everybody talks about the movie A Beautiful Mind and immediately praise the protagonist’s character for distinguishing reality from the mind’s games of a disorder that we still don’t fully have a cure for, but only a few notice the empathy shown throughout the film.

In the middle of his initial treatments for schizophrenia, the doctor tells Alicia: Imagine if you suddenly learned that the people, the places, the moments most important to you were not gone, not dead, but worse, had never been. What kind of hell would that be?

With this, Alicia understands his suffering. His beautiful mind has been playing tricks on him all along. So she stands by him and offers help gently. Nash does not believe what everyone tells him: that his roommate, his roommate’s nephew, and Parcher are not real. He is forced to battle it out alone, which in return was hurting his wife and child.

Yet he chooses to believe they are real, and that the Russian is after him for answers. As the days go by, his intuition and fears grow darker, and he isolates himself, causing his wife to fear for him.

The day he realizes that the nephew is not aging, he runs after his wife, who is about to leave out of fear, and tells her what he has discovered: the nephew he sees has not aged.

This subtle hint gives her the confidence that Nash is in his right mind, and she returns home to help him.

WhenNash speaks his mind about him being unsure of the things around him; she shows him what is real and touches his face, she reminds him that touch, people who age, and these tender gestures help him find direction and confirm what is real.

From then on, Alicia looks after him, and together they move closer to Princeton, believing that being near what Nash loves will help. Nash also reconnects with an old friend, shows empathy, and lets the friend stay and work from the campus library.

Slowly, we see him change. We see him confronting the people in his mind, telling them that the journey ends there and that he will not react to their convictions.

We see him talking to students outside the library, helping them grow, learn, and understand concepts, even as he learns to ignore his own intrusive thoughts and fears.

This change happened because Nash chose to fight but also because of the people people around Nash who were empathetic for someone who was suffering.

How often do we find such empathy in the world now?

The world has made progress in curing so many diseases that we forget cures come only after the disease is identified. Before that, empathy, being surrounded by loved ones, and the ability to find joy in what we love come first, and then come cures, treatments, and the rest.

When Sore chooses to stop trying to change Jonathan so she can be with the person she loves for a longer time in the future - she asks him to stop smoking cigarretes, drinking alcohol, and suggests eating healthy, and exercising.

During this, we see her helping with all and never losing her smile in the process. She has a content look in her face of things being in her control and a hope that the future will change.

However, after failed attempts keep leaking her hope of change, she reaches a conclusion that people never change.

She chooses to go about her own life thinking distance might free her from the fate she keeps circling. She meets different people asking for job, and then meets Marko, a fashion boutique shop owner - who gives her a place to stay and a place to work.

A few days go by, she seems to adjust well in this new setting, everything looks okay, she gets better at the job, makes the place she lives beautiful, and keeps working for Marko.

When nothing seems to go wrong - enters Jonathan - who seems to still be with Elsa - who she knows will not be the end goal if not chased. So, she hesitates, leaves the room, comes back, when checking the fit for Jonathan, she stops herself from telling him that she is her wife from the future.

She watches - she listens and once she sees that Jonathan is still not doing good. She asks Marko - You said “There are three things time cannot undo: The past, the pain, and death's quiet truth.”

Marko, quietly nods - saying “Yes that's what I said”

“So you believe people can change?” asks Sore, while facing down, as if she knows the answer.

“Of course people can change. But, the change must come from within. Some people have trouble making peace with the pain and trauma. But they can change.”

Once she realized what Marko truly means; she hugs him, says thank you.

All this while, She was trying to change who he was based on what she knows. Which in turn must change the fate of both on the future. Ever since, she has been in the loop, she has been selfish giving Jonathan ultimatums rather than providing a space to heal.

She was guiding him to perfection so she can find more time with him in the future. Which Jonathan cannot understand because to him - his life is better the way it is.

However, once she realized - she slows down and allows for him to change from within but time had other plans.

Sore did not give trauma or had a bad past with Jonathan; but why should she allow Jonathan now?

Often times we think for the sake of relationship asking others to change will keep the relationship happy and in this case, the future of Jonathan even more longer as she states he dies.

But only lately I have realized that it is more about how we heal, how much are we willing to see our partner as a person just like us - with a past and a catalyst in our life.

These tiny things often feel of no importance but once realized are pivotal for people to remain together.

All the other glitter fades away but these moments if done right will etch a mark on the hearts of your partner. When years pass by, the one thing that is bound to stay is the space you give and the love you shower.

When Robert sleeps on the ashes of his burnt home waiting for his wife and daughter, we see ourselves in his place - longing for someone or something to return that we most innately want to come back.

We unknowingly hope his wife shows up and from that moment on we become one with Robert until the end of the movie.

That sequence of Robert staying in denial and hoping they come back is felt by us at some point in our lives or we fear feeling it someday.

Despite all the struggles, Robert does one thing in silence - Hope.

He waits fighting internally for the return of his wife, his daughter and his whole life’s purpose. He stays in that bubble, for so long that later we see people calling him crazy; spoken so subtly in a conversation with Claire.

Later, one day when he finds a girl with bruises, running high temperature, hurting outside his home; he believes her to be his lost daughter who came back.

He carries the girl in his arms inside his home. The one that was rebuilt in anticipation, finally has a meaning of home.

He believes that the girl is his daughter and he gently cares for her but he is the one healing.

He later sits on the chair next to the girl and his face shines up finding his purpose again. He finally sleeps with a smile. He finds warmth in caring for her for those few hours.

When he wakes up the next morning, only to find the bed empty, and can’t seem to find her anywhere, he quietly accepts.

He realizes how many years has gone by, he then travels, flies on a plane, watches a man in the outer space on a television, and lastly looks himself in the mirror.

We see him becoming one with the nature on the very home he built at the end. He went away but the quiet fight of waiting for their return stayed.

We all are suffering silently. Lost in our own weight and we struggle to cope with it.

If only we can leave our baggage and start fresh, as a page turned.

But life don’t offer new pages. Atleast not without the heftiness of the ink on the previous paper.

When Priest Jud calls the forklift company and speaks to Louisa on the phone, the voice, tone, and pace with which he asks information tells the urgency he has to find the person and help him prove his innocence.

When his urgency was met with random information that is not needed to him, he gets frustrated and then Louisa offers a call back when she gets the information.

As he tries to end the call, louisa says - “Will you pray for me?”

When his urgency is met with the pain she silently passed in those words, he realises what his purpose was and questions his actions all that while.

The line - “Will you pray for me?” from Louisa hits Jud on his purpose and the tone of urgency immediately drops and the inner priest comes out.

The calmness he brings is innate and has come from a lot of his process to be and do good.

Which probably is why the first time Benoit Blanc meets him he says the line -

While watching the scene where the tone shifts - I had two thoughts

1. The quiet calmness in his voice hits harder than any noise and how he ends the call with louisa saying “you have my number, no matter day or night, I am here for you” is not something that only god can give but as a human who want to help others can provide other human beings and as he is a in the path of a priest, he calls to god.

2. The line Blanc says about Jud in the beginning when he first met and saw the goodness in him sets our minds in a positive note towards Jud and also shows how good of a detective blanc really is.

Watching this scene, I felt quietly confronted.

I tend to rush to provide my point of views, solutions or insights on their problems when people share something personal.

I offer thoughts, solutions, interpretations—often too soon. Maybe even before they’ve finished sharing their part.

Jud’s calmness reminded me that not everything shared is a problem waiting for my input. Sometimes, what people need is not clarity—but space. Space to be heard, to be seen as another human and to be present with them.

However, after hearing Jud say “I am here for you” - that gave me a sense of assurance that he will be someone whom I can share my troubles and felt heard.

To be that person for others—to be someone whose presence says “you can speak here”—feels like a personal achievement worth striving for.

Not for virality or for credits but as a human what can we give when we have nothing to offer but our shoulder to cry on, and our ears to hear other peoples problems.

I should not be jumping to put my 2 cents on their story and let them finish and more importantly not everything is a problem you have to solve.

Sometimes, the shoulder you offer gives more strength to fight their own battles than the solution you rush to provide.