Movie Review: Proof (2005)

Genre: Drama  

Director: John Madden  

Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis  

Running Time: 100 minutes  

Synopsis: After suffering from mental illness for many years, brilliant Chicago-based mathematics Professor Robert Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins) dies. His daughter Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) sacrificed her own university mathematics studies to care for him in his final years. Now Catherine worries she may be experiencing the same mental atrophy as her father. Her sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from New York already assuming that Catherine is unwell, while graduate student Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes through the Professor's latter-year notebooks, hoping to find undiscovered flashes of brilliance.

What Works Well: The adaptation of David Auburn's four-character play explores mental decay blurring the lines between reality and willful fantasy, Catherine missing her father, protective of his legacy, resentful that she was left alone to care for him, and now wondering if she is following his unfortunate path. With overbearing sister Claire and well-meaning student Hal acting as catalysts, the intellectual milieu finds time and space for dramatic twists both sharp and poignant. Gwyneth Paltrow's performance exposes unsettled fragility battling with inner strength, allowing Catherine's shortcomings and brilliance to collide into unexpected revelations.

What Does Not Work As Well: The theatrical origins are only partially overcome, and are most apparent in stagey dialogue exchanges. Catherine's mental fog becomes a convenient device to prolong a mystery (related to a potentially groundbreaking mathematical proof in one of the Professor's notebooks) well past the point of impact. Trying to create drama and narrative tension out of mathematical scribbles is an almost hopeless exercise.

Key Quote:

Catherine (addressing the attendees at her father's memorial service): Wow. I can't believe how many people are here. I never knew he had this many friends. Where have you all been for the last five years? I guess to you guys he was already dead, right?



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