Although it probably worked a lot better on the stage... Proof is an intriguing story.
Proof (2005)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:130
Fresh:82
Rotten:48
Average Rating:6.5/10
Consensus: Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins give exceptional performances in a film that intelligently tackles the territory between madness and genius.
Rated: PG-13 [See Full Rating] for some sexual content, language and drug references.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Sep 16, 2005 Limited
Box Office: $7,468,700
Synopsis: Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar for her performance in director John Madden's SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, teams up again with Madden in PROOF, a poignant drama based on David Auburn's Pulitzer... Gwyneth Paltrow, who won an Oscar for her performance in director John Madden's SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, teams up again with Madden in PROOF, a poignant drama based on David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Paltrow lights up the screen as Catherine, a young woman who has given up a seemingly bright future in order to take care of her ailing father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a formerly brilliant mathematician who went crazy. After he dies, Catherine's closed-off world is invaded by Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a young mathematician who worshipped Robert, and Claire (Hope Davis), her successful sister who fears that Catherine is too much like their father--a talented, supremely intelligent person with severe mental problems. During the last years of his life, Robert filled 103 notebooks with his writings, but one of them, written during a brief period of lucidity, could turn the math world on its head, while also threatening Catherine's already wavering sanity. Auburn co-wrote the screenplay with Rebecca Miller (PERSONAL VELOCITY, THE BALLAD OF JACK AND ROSE), taking it off the stage, setting it in and around Chicago, and breathing new life into the story, along with Stephen Warbeck's compelling score and plenty of outstanding acting, particularly by the glowing Paltrow and the earnest Gyllenhaal. [More]
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis
Starring: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis, Gary Houston, Colin Stinton, Roshan Seth
Director: John Madden, James D. Stern
Director: John Madden
Screenwriter: Rebecca Miller
Producer: Jeff Sharp, John N. Hart, Robert Kessel, Alison Owen, Bob Weinstein
Director: James D. Stern
Composer: Stephen Warbeck
Screenwriter: David Auburn
Studio: Miramax Films
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Reviews for Proof
It's not just that [Paltrow] has trouble playing the part of a math genius; she seems to have trouble at times playing the part of a human being.
You couldn't find a role more comfortable for Paltrow, who is at her best, ranging effortlessly from seething anger to trembling tenderness.
[An] emotionally rich and honest drama that makes for a quality big-screen experience for demanding grown-ups daring to go back into theatres once the summer's silly heat has died down.
Unconvincing Proof deflates the mathematical experience through a morose script and a pacing that is melancholic.
Paltrow played Catherine on stage in London and is at her best here since she last performed under Madden's direction in Shakespeare in Love.
Despite a great cast and an interesting premise, Proof feels more like an outline for a movie than the real thing.
Many of the very attributes that made David Auburn's Proof an award-winning stage play hamper it as a film.
The result, like so many stout travellers from stage to screen, is respectable. Stolidly, bloodlessly, yawningly respectable.
Paltrow and Davis give remarkable performances... [but] Hopkins, playing a man dealing with his mental decline, is overly imperious, too much lion and not enough winter.
What was perfectly calibrated and compelling on stage seems mechanical and perfunctory on film.
One wonders how transcendent the film might have been in the hands of a more versatile actress than Paltrow.
Resolutely uncinematic, Auburn's tale of a maybe mathematics prodigy feels thin and underpopulated. Some plays are better left on the stage.
Once you get past that golden swag and curtain of hair, Paltrow's performance is devastating, cutting to the pith and marrow of parent-child relations.
Miscast yet marvelous, Paltrow and the rest of the cast hold you to the movie, even when you intuitively sense something is lacking.
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