Proof
Directed by John Madden.
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Anthony Hopkins.
Generally speaking, it helps if the thematic content of a story is fundamentally encapsulated within its opening sequences. Proof provides a very good proof for this principle, which gets it off to a great start.
John Madden (director) and David Auburn (play/screenplay) do a fine job in creating a complicated story centering upon a young woman’s (Gwyneth Paltrow) relations with her legendary but ailing father (Anthony Hopkins).
As the famous mathematician gradually drifts into madness, his daughter feels compelled to care for him. Fearing that she has inherited both his genius and madness, she gives up her studies and her life in general and begins to fall apart.
I have to admit to having reservations about a film directed by and starring Shakespeare in Love cohorts. I’m still bitter about the best actress Oscar. But I got over it.
There are moments after the first scenes in which the conversion from play to film seems a little forced. The daemonic sister (Hope Davis) basically yells all of her theatrically witty dialogue as though trying to project her voice to a live audience. I found it slightly annoying, but it was ultimately countered by the more subtle filmic performances of Hopkins (who can yell and rage without seeming theatrical), Gyllenhaal, who plays the part of Catherine’s love interest and admiring student of her father, and Paltrow.
Having seen Paltrow’s despairing face before in Bounce (awful), The Royal Tenenbaums and Sylvia, it would be easy to be annoyed by it. But she does it well here. In fact, she makes an awkward role in which the full spectrum of the emotions is sprawlingly explored look effortless.
Proof ponders, amongst other things, the way the failing elder generation should be treated as they slide into mental and physical incompetence. A particularly poignant feature is the way the nature of the connection between generations is explored in Catherine’s relations with her ailing father. It is hard to think of a more compelling theme. After all, the passing down of genius and madness is a legacy we are all forced to consider in an advanced yet insanely foundering world.
I really enjoyed this film. It is conceptually sound and the narrative connects as elegantly as a finely composed mathematical theory. It has a powerful emotional content without being angsty or sentimental. It also has something to say about the contemporary social landscape, as well as human existence in general.
Proof is refreshingly ambitious for a take-your-mother-to-see-it type film. The strangely lucid ramblings that are found in the father’s journals (expressing a kind of poeticised theory of thermodynamics) point to the logical conclusion of all human relations. They are at the core of what this film is about. In the end, everything will be cold. But for now, we’re on fire.
Go see it.
Shannon Burns
