Unlimitedia Sick Product of a Sick System

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Frances Chung Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

SnoopyStyle Catherine Llewellyn (Gwyneth Paltrow) is struggling to deal with the death of her genius math professor father Robert (Anthony Hopkins). He deteriorated mentally in his last years which forced her to quit school and take care of him. His former student Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) is working through a mountain of Robert's incoherent notebooks to find anything worth saving. Catherine's sister Claire (Hope Davis) arrives for the funeral and seeks to bring Catherine back to New York for treatment. When Hal discovers a notebook filled with a ground-breaking math proof, Catherine claims it to be written by her.This is a compelling portrayal of the mathematical obsession. It's not as flashy or romantic as cinema tries to dress up math sometimes. It is a bit sad. Paltrow does great work following Hopkins. She shows that she's not simply a romantic lead. It's a compelling character study.

eric262003 Some plays are never meant to be adapted onto the big screen. David Auburn wrote a very powerful Pulitzer-prize winner and as result, it became another drab, drippy Gwyneth Paltrow starring vehicle. It's a shameful disposition that everyone will forget about the play and will only remember this slushy film directed by John Madden ("Shakespeare in Love"). The final product consists of a cornucopia of of tiresome compromises and an abundance of cuts that will leave you scratching your heads.There are many reasons why "Proof" lacks life but there are two main faults that stand out more than the others. Firstly, Paltrow is forced to play an emotionally distraught lady which can be described as a role that's outside her parameters in her acting. If you remember her "Sylvia" she plays a brilliant poet with suicidal tendencies who came across as a level-headed person who's penmanship is virtually flawless. Here in "Proof", she's once again playing a harried person who's a mathematical wiz who fears she might be losing her mind. Once again she keeps her sanity in tact while hiding her feelings from the public.Though she's a very intelligent person and hasn't become full-blown insane as we speak, but her moods tell a completely different story. Calling on someone who's about to breakdown, her emotions stem from morose, frustrated, depressed and drab. There's really no emotional changes in character and what you see in her character is what you get. She's either sad, very sad, full-blown moody and just plain frustrated about her depressions. There's really no feel-good about this movie at all.The other thing that irked me the most about "Proof" is that director John Madden just ignored the elements that this movie started as a play and making it lost the roots that it started from. If Madden wanted to open up the story like he did, more panache could have been necessary and opened up more to the audience to get their attention. What he gives us are a bunch of snippets of pointless soundtrack intervals with Catherine (Paltrow) riding her bicycle that lack in point or significance to the movie and just drags on the dramatic tensions this movie has in store for us.From the beginning, Auburn was not really given much creative control since he was under the collaboration of Rebecca Miller. Since he knew his characters better than any of the other crew members, it would've been wiser if he chose a director who was more adept in technique. Instead the script was under the pen of a mundane writer whose previous work is featured in other films.In following the tradition of the original play, the setting takes plays days after the death of Robert (Anthony Hopkins) who was a brilliant mathematician who's final years was spent fighting a mental illness. We're first introduced to him while talking to his daughter, Catherine on her 27th birthday. But she acknowledges that he's deceased. He seems passive about it, which indicates that he's probably just a manifestation in her mind.The rest of the supporting cast includes Jake Gyllenhaal as graduate student Hal who starts digging through Robert's archives. And there's Hope Davis who plays Catherine's estranged sister Claire who makes it her initiative to become a prominent guardian to Catherine. Claire might be the closest to being the leading antagonist. Sure the sympathy is towards Catherine, but her character is so drippy, I find it hard to feel in every way sorry for her. Not only is she bit cuckoo at times, there are moments where she just creeps me out at times.The script has some memorable scenes like funeral eulogy that has a negative impact on Catherine that never fully contributes to the movie. The title of the movie stems from the esoteric mathematical breakthrough found in his desk. The penmanship whether it will ever be revealed is the climax of the story. However, it's the scenes where Catherine's flashbacks and hallucinations that really stand out. The father\daughter chemistry between Paltrow and Hopkins truly stand-out. If only David Auburn had more creative control, this movie could've been all the more better.

Python Hyena Proof (2005): Dir: John Madden / Cast: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, Hope Davis, Leigh Zimmerman: Intense yet provocative film about state of being. Anthony Hopkins plays a mathematical genius who gradually slips into insanity while under the care of his daughter, played by Gwyneth Paltrow. After his death she questions her own state of mind as a student researches her father's journals in order to understand their meaning. Engaging premise that become a series of arguments. Director John Madden worked with Paltrow in the engaging yet overrated Shakespeare in Love. This time he switches gears and receives a much more defined performance from Paltrow who struggles to maintain a sense of identity. Hopkins is commanding in flashbacks showcasing his madness. Jake Gyllenhaal tries to unscramble Hopkins's journals but he also falls within the film's one central weakness and that is its hinted innuendo between he and Paltrow. Hope Davis plays Paltrow's protective sister who begins to question her sanity and the chance that she may follow in her father's footsteps. Outside the leads there is minor characters that occupy very little screen time until it gets to the plot points. Very well made drama with strong casting and a reason for being. It regards how heredity can shape our lifestyle less we break the cycle. Score: 6 ½ / 10

Dcamplisson It has a great cast, Hopkins especially. However ....I kept waiting to see the characters break out of their middle class academic cocoon and touch the real world. But instead the film droned out through a silo of white privileged dullards who all seemed to have their heads up their Pi hole. I feel asleep twice and had to rewind and saw Paltrow ( skinny blonde) yelling about vegetarianism and jojoba etc. then I was sorry I had rewound. The kind of bland text continued with a series of first world problems and concerns that don't seem to connect with reality. Paltows concerns about her mental health seem quite justified as her behaviour is inexplicable but it's hard to tell when the character only interacts with people who are all rather academic and mathematicians who apparently (according to Jake) live on drugs because they are ( warning, another first world problem alert) afraid that their creativity peas at age 23. Boo hoo. I couldn't help wondering if this play featured peeps who had real jobs and lives would their concerns not be more real worldly.