Proof (2005)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

John Madden

Writers (WGA):

David Auburn (play)
David Auburn (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

30 September 2005 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Tagline:

Based on the Pulitzer Prize winning play by David Auburn

Plot:

The daughter of a brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician, recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father's ex-students who wants to search through his papers and her estranged sister who shows up to help settle his affairs.

Plot Keywords:

Mathematician | Notebook | Mathematics | University | Nonlinear Timeline

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 2 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

Gwyneth Paltrow	...	Catherine
Anthony Hopkins	...	Robert
Jake Gyllenhaal	...	Hal
Danny McCarthy	...	Cop
Hope Davis	...	Claire
Tobiasz Daszkiewicz	...	Limo Driver (as Tobiacz Daszkiewicz)
Gary Houston	...	Professor Barrow
Anne Wittman	...	Friend at Party
Leigh Zimmerman	...	Friend at Party
Colin Stinton	...	Theoretical Physicist
Leland Burnett	...	Band Vocalist
John Keefe	...	University Friend
Chipo Chung	...	University Friend
C. Gerod Harris	...	University Friend (as C Gerod Harris)
Roshan Seth	...	Professor Bhandari

Also Known As:

{proof} (International: English title) (poster title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for some sexual content, language and drug references.

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

UK:12A | Ireland:15A | Netherlands:AL | Hong Kong:IIA | Singapore:NC-16 | Finland:K-11 | Czech Republic:12 | Sweden:Btl | Argentina:13 | Hungary:16 | Malaysia:(Banned) | Canada:PG (Ontario) | Germany:6 | South Korea:12 | USA:PG-13 | Australia:M

Filming Locations:

Chicago, Illinois, USA

Company:

Miramax Films

Trivia:

All the dialogue is written in iambic pentameter.

Goofs:

Continuity: During the argument between the three main characters, Catherine crumples the notebook trying to tear out some pages. Yet in the final scene, when Catherine goes through the proof explaining it to Hal the notebook looks just like new.

Quotes:

Hal: Well, I'm gonna be late. Some friends of mine are in this band. They're playing in a bar on Diversey, way down the bill, they go on about 2 to 2:30. I said I'd be there.
Catherine: Great.
Hal: They're all in the math deparment, they're really good. They have this song called 'i', you'd like it. Like lower-cased i. They just stand there and don't play anything for three minutes.
Catherine: Imaginary number.
Hal: It's a math joke... You see why they're way down on the bill.
Catherine: That's a long way to drive to see some nerds in a band.
Hal: You know, I hate when people say that. It's not really that long of a drive.
Catherine: So, they are nerds.
Hal: Oh, they're raging geeks. But they're geeks who, you know, can dress themselves and hold down a job at a major university. Some of them have switched from glasses to contacts. They, uh, play sports, they play in a band, they get laid suprisingly often... So, it makes you kinda question the whole set of terms. Geek, nerd, wonk, dilbert, paste eater...
Catherine: You're in this band, aren't you.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Features Night of the Living Dead (1968)

Soundtrack:

I'm Ready

powerful performance

by the dialogue, you can tell this story began as a very good play. the issue with making a movie from a very good play is that you have to add something impossible to do on stage. i think paltrow does an excellent job. i'm not a big gwyn fan, but the way she portrayed her deep sadness throughout the movie, in closeups you wouldn't see from the balcony section of a theater - the fragility of her grasp on reality, the trauma of watching her father deteriorate before her eyes... this is something beyond "a beautiful mind," which centered more on the hallucinations and surreality of a victim of mental disease. "proof," instead, focuses on the father-daughter relationship and how, even after caring for his deteriorated mind for years, a daughter doesn't think twice about seeking her father's approval - as if he could be coherent for the moment she needed him to be. i thought that was the most poignant part of the movie. there's not a lot to the story of the movie, but the depth in the performances - paltrow, hopkins and hope davis - is worth the ticket. its nice to actually see a very good movie once in a while.