Proof (12A) (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Proof (12A)

Proof is based on a play by David Auburn that had its West End run in 2002 and won the Pulitzer Prize on Broadway. While in London it starred Gwyneth Paltrow who takes on the role again here. John Madden, who also directed her in Shakespeare in Love, directs the film. The title Proof is the validation of a mathematical theory dealing with prime numbers, if that makes you any the wiser. But this film is more a character study than a mathematical one.

We first meet brilliant mathematician Catherine (Paltrow) when her genius but unstable maths professor father Robert (Anthony Hopkins) appears and gives her a bottle of bubbly to celebrate her 27th birthday. ,However, this is obviously just her state of mind, because Robert has in fact just died of an aneurysm and she is grieving. We learn in flashbacks how she left university to look after Robert as dementia gradually took hold of his mind. In the present her sister Claire (Hope Davies) arrives in Chicago from New York to organise her and the funeral with overbearing efficiency. Claire wants Catherine to return with her after the funeral. We meet one of her father's dissertation students Hal Dobbs (Jake Gyllenhaal). He is interested in Robert's old notebooks and is also attracted to Catherine. Hal hopes to find some brilliant mathematical theory, but when he does, Catherine claims it is her own work. So we have lonely and emotionally inadequate Catherine, who believes she could have inherited her father's mental problems as well as his brilliance, Hal who loves Catherine, but does not know whether he can believe her, and Claire who is just a nightmare.

The trouble with stage plays, which only have a few developed characters, is that they don't translate well to the big screen; they always feel staged. But with such a strong cast and Auburn himself writing the adaptation this does hold all the right cards. They try to overcome the stage feeling by giving us great views of Chicago and Lake Michigan, but the scenes inside feel very like set pieces. All four main parts are excellent and bring the characters alive. I thought Paltrow was brilliant in Sylvia (2003) and managed to convey all Sylvia Plath's many complexities. Here she is in another emotionally draining role to which she gives great depth, playing an introspective woman without a social life. It helps that Madden also directed her in the stage production and really understands his star, letting her run with the part.

You are never really sure whether Catherine is mad like her father or just exhausted with her life - but this is the film's trump card because it keeps one interested. Until now Gyllenhaal's popularity has escaped me, but here he more than proves himself, making Hal suitably geeky but also steady. The role of Robert is effortless for Hopkins, and Davies gives bossy Claire her best shot. So all in all this is a class act as all the characters balance each other out. But the film's main failing is Catherine isn't someone one can warm to, leaving one feeling rather detached from the proceedings. This is no doubt because she is a genius who is suffering from deep depression, so her behaviour is not meant to be normal. However, the story does pose some interesting points, like how alarmingly close madness and genius are. 7/10