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Shakespeare in Love director John Madden reunited with that film’s Oscar-winning leading lady, Gwyneth Paltrow, for this absorbing adaptation of David Auburn’s Tony Award-winning drama. Paltrow portrays Catherine, the brilliant but troubled daughter of college professor Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a legendarily gifted mathematician, whose advancing mental illness makes him increasingly difficult to look after. Catherine’s estranged sister, Claire (Hope Davis), arrives to put the old man’s affairs in order just as one of his former students, Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), begins poring through Robert’s papers for proof of a theory that will revolutionize mathematics. The crux of the story is Catherine’s inability to distinguish herself in the outside world after spending so many years in her father’s shadow, and her grappling with the fear that she will inevitably succumb to the dementia that has robbed Robert of his greatness. Paltrow handles a difficult characterization with great skill and sensitivity; she effectively conveys the fear of someone walking the tightrope between sanity and insanity. Gyllenhaal is similarly good as the grad student whose motives remain questionable throughout much of the film: Is he trying to cement his mentor’s place in history, or is he an opportunist intending to appropriate Robert’s work for himself? Hopkins, of course, is superb as the declining mathematician, whose glimmers of lucidity are less frequent and less lasting with each passing day. Perhaps better than any writer in recent memory, Auburn (who scripted this adaptation of his play) portrays the dichotomy of the intellectual life, a life lived not only in “the real world” but also in the recesses of the mind. It’s not an easy theme to digest, but as laid out in Proof, it’s one well worth exploring. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

A woman struggles to come to terms with the potentially dangerous legacy of her late father in this drama based on the award-winning stage play by David Auburn. Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a woman in her late twenties who is strongly devoted to her father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant and well-known mathematician. While Robert's skill in the world of numbers still appears to be strong, his grip on reality begins to slip away, and as Robert descends into madness, Catherine begins to wonder if she may have inherited her father's mental illness along with his mathematical genius. After Robert's passing, Catherine is confronted by Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal), a gifted but zealous student of Robert's who wants to look through the late man's notes in hopes of finding his last great work. While Catherine is hesitant to look too deeply into her father's work for fear of what it might suggest about her own future, she allows Hal to do so, and when one notebook reveals a mathematical proof of potentially historic proportions, it sets off shock waves in more ways than one. Proof also stars Hope Davis as Catherine's well-meaning but shallow sister, who doubts Catherine's ability to take care of herself. Paltrow had previously played Catherine to stellar reviews during the original play's run in London's West End. Mark Deming

Product Details

• UPC: 786936296303
• Source: MIRAMAX
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Cinemascope (2.35:1)
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: Français, English
• Subtitles: Español
• Time: 1:39:00
• Sales Rank: 7,721

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