Review of Proof (1991) by Alvin Y — 14 Dec 2010

This film is about death, love, and mental incapacity. There are bound to be endless clichà (C)s, comparisons, and parallels drawn with Ron Howard's "A Beautiful Mind", so I won't go there.

In the end, this film is all about Gwyneth Paltrow. She is on screen at least 80% of this film. Her character dances between mourning, anger, remorse, confusion, fear, vulnerability, sadness, and just a little bit of love.

There are very dramatic changes in emotion from moment to moment, and Paltrow pulls it off brilliantly. Sir Anthony Hopkins role, while relatively small, is crucial to the film. His performance was good, but not great.

But it didn't really matter, as Proof is all about Paltrow. Hope Davis and Jake Gyllenhall also gave solid performances, but their as with Hopkin's role were really nothing more than support Paltrow.

"Proof" feels entirely honest about the dynamics of dysfunctional families; you just know David Auburn is writing from personal experience. Like Robert Redford's "Ordinary People," if you have any exposure to similar family dynamics, you know the team that put the film together got everything just right.

"Proof" also creates a parallel between mathematics and the messiness of life that makes one re-evaluate the rigidity of what always appears to be an exact science. As one must accept a level of ambiguity in life, one must also be willing to make leaps of faith in mathematics, because nothing can be 100% proved.

I highly recommend this film. It's satisfying on both an intellectual and emotional level. And any movie that can make math exciting to me gets an automatic big thumbs all the way up.