Proof (2005)

Synopsis:  Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) who after 5 years of looking after her once brilliant mathematician father (Anthony Hopkins) who has just died is strung-out and fearing for her own mental stability which she believes she may have inherited from him along with his mathematical skills. Her bossy elder sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from New York City for the funeral  and to sell the family home from under her.  The only person she feels that she can trust is one of her father’s students, Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) but when she shows him a brilliant mathematical proof that she has written, he suspects her of having stolen her father’s work

Proof starts out looking like it’s going to be a soppy romance between Paltrow and Gyllenhaal as a couple of awkward lovers, possibly with an overlay of the insanity in the female half of the equation.  It is that but it also manages to strike some solid ground thanks to intelligent writing and solid performances.  Based on a play by David Auburn which won the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for Drama the script by Auburn with Rebecca Miller (daughter of Arthur Miller and wife to Daniel Day-Lewis) commands one’s attention as it explores family dynamics, the price of genius and the failings of mere mortals.

Whilst both Paltrow and Gyllenhaal are far too pretty and closely molded in the standard Hollywood romantic couple tradition not to induce skepticism, they both deliver strong performances.  Most surprisingly (for me at least) Paltrow, is convincing, much more so than in her Oscar-winning turn in Madden’s Shakespeare In Love . No doubt it helped that she played the role in the London stage production but she invests her character with vulnerability and pride, a moving combination which stands up to the camera’s scrutiny.  

Gyllenhaal is, as ever, appealingly good-natured and Davis is effective as the far-less gifted daughter. The only problem performance-wise is with Hopkins who appears in the regular flashbacks. To what extent it is Hopkins’ doing, to what extent Madden’s it is impossible to tell but the esteemed actor remains the same as he always appear, urbane and self-possessed, not even remotely suggesting the demented, stinking old buzzard referred to by Catherine in her funeral oration.

 

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