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Proof (2005)
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Movie Review by Jarrod 
September 17th, 2005
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'Proof' is one of those illuminating movies that deepens your appreciation for cinema as a whole. It is a masterful character study that examines the nature of mental illness, and if it could possibly be a by-product of genius. Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is the daughter of Robert (Hopkins), a revered mathematician whose recent death came after years of battling dementia. Catherine served as his caretaker, and now thinks that she might be going mad. Jake Gyllenhaal plays Hal, a student of Robert's, who shows up to look through the old man's notebooks, and Hope Davis is Claire, Catherine's sister, who comes from New York determined to get Catherine to come home with her.
Catherine is extremely conflicted. She might have inherited her father's brilliance, which could explain her current state of mind, or it could simply be a combination of grief and stress. The answers aren't certain. The film also handles a potentially boring issue; the rights of intellectual property, as evidenced by the title. Hal discovers among the gibberish in Robert's notes a radical theory that Catherine claims she came up with. However, there is no visible way to identify the author. Catherine ends up confiding in Hal, since both of them were close to Robert, and Hal seems to be just as eccentric as Catherine and her father. Catherine and Claire don't get along, because Claire never made any attempts to visit Robert before he died, and even suggested putting him in an institution. Now Claire wants to sell the house.
'Proof' might seem pretty dense and slow to a lot of viewers, but it is actually quite accessible and completely engrossing, due in part to the excellent script (David Auburn, adapting his own play, and Rebecca Miller know how to write intelligent and meaningful dialogue), but mostly because of the sensational performances. Paltrow is really at the center of the film, and manages to give the best performance of her career. Though she won an Oscar for Shakespeare in Love, it would not be beyond reason to assume that she could win again for her work here. Hopkins is his usual fine self, Davis is good as the control-freak sister, and Gyllenhaal exudes quirkiness as well as quiet magnetism.
'Proof' is not wholly original; the premise is similar to A Beautiful Mind, Shine, and other films about brilliant people with serious problems. But it does manage to distinguish itself, and has, at least in terms of structure and mood, almost no commonality with the aforementioned films.
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