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Proof (2005)
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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.
Runtime: 1 hr 40 mins
Genre: Dramas
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
Reviews for Proof
Jake Gyllenhaal brings a certain geeky sweetness and enthusiasm to his role as Hal. There's also genuine chemistry between him and Gwyneth, even if she seems a little too old for him.
Despite a stage-bound script, this story of family politics and mathematical genius is intriguing and fairly involving
For patient viewers, it does offer a carefully considered and ultimately inspiring examination of how the need for order and logic is less important than a willingness to embrace chaos.
[A]n infantile fantasy ... of not just being daddy's favorite but being chosen, by some mysterious power, to inherit his gift.
Unconvincing Proof deflates the mathematical experience through a morose script and a pacing that is melancholic.
The trouble with Proof is that, however efficiently it completes its task, you have to ask whether the job was worth starting.
Something went terribly wrong here and one of the fine theatrical experiences of recent years turns into celluloid dross.
The story's emotional stakes are such a grab bag that it's difficult to feel much urgency about the outcome.
Presents a knot of questions, twisted up inside a knot of delicate performances and a fragmented narrative.
John Madden's competent, monotonous film version, not exactly stagebound but hardly freewheeling, only underscores its mechanical nature.
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