"Proof" (2005) - Movie Review

“Proof” is the kind of film which makes me think back to put the screenplay and editing to my choice and credit myself that it would have been better because the material is original and good. I also think Gwyneth Paltrow is miscast for the role of Catherine, the daughter of mentally deteriorating mathematical genius Robert (Anthony Hopkins). She is a mathematician too and at one point she is challenged for it by two characters which we second but the difference is I doubted it throughout the film because she does not convince me as a mathematician.

I totally believed a loving daughter who is grieving her father’s death, but a mathematician, nope. Now Jake Gyllenhaal as Hal, a former research student of Robert is a perfect geek whom I can any day believe in. He can be the nerd who is cool enough to impress a woman like Paltrow and still claim his geek standard. Anyways, “Proof” could have been a very good film and it falls short a couple of foot in reaching it.

The film is said in present and as in flashbacks of Catherine’s encounters with her mentally ill father who suddenly seems to be working again. At the start of the film we see both of them talking over Catherine’s birthday and cuts off to flashes of other sequences in past. And we cut back to the day before Robert’s funeral. She is imagining things and begins to doubt herself on her mental stability. To make things worse arrives in the form of her sister Claire (Hope Davis) from New York bringing New York along with her. Claire is the big sister ticking of check list items in a diary for things to do, even the emotional actions. The mechanical execution behind it is the rudeness to its maximum utility. But in her thoughts her calculation is to tally the accounts of goodwill, sacrifice and a true guilt.

The film which begins as the story of a mourning daughter to cope up with her proceedings turns into math game. We do not understand it as the involvement of it seems unnecessary and this is where I would have loved to have the story take the screenplay from start, going linear. The choice of flash back by director John Madden does have a distinguished insight on figuring out the character of Catherine but the puzzlement is more befuddling. It becomes tangential on the enormity this character. Madden wants us to wear the judgmental hat as a concerned Hal and Claire does but seeing through them is not the story but looking through the reality of Catherine is the core.

There is an emotional pay off which should move us and we should see Catherine shed off those doubts of instability. Out there, at that moment the prejudice we have created should shatter us all and drain us into the guilt and awe which Madden intends. It is moving but it does not hit the spot. Not that in any way misjudges the character. It is the failure of the screenplay to play a math game which was not required at all.

There is an aura of light even in the darkness of a scene and it places the movie in a plane realistic enough and imaginary too. There is a subtle cinematography which lights up the dungeon house into a temple of mathematical enlightenment. Hopkins has a scene with Paltrow wherein he is washed up by the invigorating control of mind he has achieved. He talks and walks with a man of complete sense and the doubtful eyes her daughter is laying upon. He steps back a few feet to confirm her acceptance. The character as said had a greater perspective and incredible aptitude to purge out his mind into mathematical equation and for him to stare in to the eyes of his daughter, the moment is both precious and sympathetic. And in Hopkins we find the Robert director Madden demands.

“Proof” is a good film and the complaints I have might skim through one’s mind. This movie has been adapted from a play written by David Auburn. The film does not seem to appear that it has been taken from a play. True that most of the actions happen in a closed section but the angle of the characters has the scope beyond that and Madden does use the cinematography and editing, the medium has a unique stamp on to make it for what it is. I was trying to think of an alternative actor for Paltrow and cannot come up with one. May be Madden was not able to come up with one either.