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List Price: $14.99 | | Label: Miramax
Salesrank: 16475
Released: February 14, 2006 |
| Our Price: $3.88 |
| Used Price: $1.82 |
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MPAA Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
From the acclaimed director of SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, PROOF stars Oscar(R) winners Gwyneth Paltrow (Best Actress, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, 1998) and Anthony Hopkins (Best Actor, SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, 1991), along with Jake Gyllenhaal (JARHEAD, BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN) and Hope Davis (ABOUT SCHMIDT). It's a powerful story of a young woman haunted by her father's past and the shadow of her own future. Catherine (Paltrow) has devoted years to caring for her brilliant but mentally unstable father, Robert (Hopkins), a mathematical genius. But when his genius slips away, he leaves behind a mystery that affects her life ... and her own sanity. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play.
Description of Proof:
Elegantly adapted from David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Proof works on so many levels that it shines like a perfected equation. Gwyneth Paltrow previously played her role onstage, and returns here as Catherine, the troubled 27-year-old daughter of Robert, a once-brilliant mathematician (Anthony Hopkins, appearing in flashbacks and imagined visions) who has recently died. What Robert has left behind is an emotionally challenging legacy of genius, mental illness, and unfinished business in the Chicago home where Catherine had cared for him during his erratic final years. Catherine fears she may have inherited her father's unstable condition, and her sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives from New York with smothering concern and a selfish but well-meaning agenda, while Robert's student and assistant Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) hopes to find lasting proof of Robert's enduring genius in the piles of notebooks he left behind. Steeped in the authentic atmosphere of advanced academia, revelations of love, fear, regret, and potential recovery unfold with such graceful complexity that Proof plays like a thriller, with all the action taking place in the admirable hearts and minds of its characters. The film also has a lot to say about the potential tragedy of assuming mental illness where none exists, while leaving just enough doubt to keep you wondering -- a tribute to the exceptional performances of a first-rate cast, and particularly to Paltrow, whose reunion with Shakespeare in Love director John Madden proves equally rewarding for entirely different reasons. --Jeff Shannon
Proof Reviews:
"Proof" and "Doubt" - (not identical) twin producitons 
2009-02-12 - After we saw this movie, my husband and I both agreed that "Proof" and "Doubt" are twin (if not identical) productions, and would make a great theater/film class assignment: examining the themes of both works, how the characters were similar, etc. It's interesting to note, as well, that the title of both works have just five letters. Loved it! Gwyneth, Jake and Hope were insanely fantastic in their strange, riveting, sometimes irritating roles.
A Beautiful Mind - Again 
2008-09-08 - Adaptation of a play with little action, but some decent dialogue. Gwyneth Paltrow plays a crazy daughter of a crazy math genius. The 'proof' is a math term. I was entertained, but this is fairly forgettable stuff. The sister has some nice moments playing down to the crazy one. You won't laugh and you won't cry.
Just bad 
2008-06-18 - If you are a mathematician, you will hate this movie -- nothing in it will remind you of the math world you know. Just think a minute: How many people in your math department look like Gwyneth Paltrow? Or even Jake Gyllenhaal? That should give you a hint to how realistic this movie is.
I found the movie so frustrating, I had to turn it off after about 20 minutes. Examples:
High-school-level conversation about insanity between two people who are both supposed to be exceptional mathematicians.
Ridiculous back-and-forth between Paltrow and Gyllenhaal where they keep changing attitudes and even personalities. I know it's based on a stage play, but couldn't they calm it down a bit for the screen?
Lazy screenplay shorthand for bossy woman: talking on cell phone about china patterns while walking through airport. Grrrr!
And finally, what made me shut it off: That insane conversation between Paltrow and Hope Davis, where one thinks the other is hallucinating for no apparent reason.
Spare me! Spare yourselves.
Great acting
2008-05-13 - Gwyneth Paltrow is great in Proof. She appears depressed, creative, brilliant, vulnerable, etc. as the genius-level daughter of a brilliant father. This is the best work I've ever seen her do. Better than Shakespeare in Love, the film that won her an Oscar. This role seems like it would be far harder to pull off than most, but Ms. Paltrow's performance is fluid, flawless, committed, and carries a subtle sense of humor throughout. Realistic and inspirational story.
Very good acting in a very bad cause... 
2008-03-17 - The idea that mathematical genius is somehow strange or crazy
is very bad doctrine. People with power of innovation and original
thought are produced in the gene pool with regularity.
They are almost as likely to be found among the poor
as among the wealthy.
Much of the real advancement of civilizations has depended on them
braving misunderstanding and persecution to bring their ideas forward.
Contributing to their problems as this movie does,
even with the very good acting is not a good idea.
The Nash's of the world are seldom and very much not the "rule".
