Proof

Rating: M – Contains Sex Scenes & Offensive Language.
Duration: 96 mins.
Genre: Drama.
Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Gwyneth Paltrow, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal, Roshan Seth, Gary Houston, Tobiasz Daszkiewicz.
Director: John Madden.
Release Date: Available Now.

Sheer brilliance. That’s how I would like to sum up Proof, but that in its self wouldn’t make for a very good review.

A film adaptation of David Auburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winng play, Proof follows the downward slide into mental instability of Catherine, a 27 year old daughter of a brilliant mathematician, whose recent departure form this life has left her with an unfinished equation, both mathematical and emotional.

Her father’s life - played with consummate greatness by Anthony Hopkins through a series of flashbacks and imagined interactions - ended slowly, with his own decline into madness, leaving Catherine to carry on alone.

Throw in Hal, a student who was being mentored by Catherine’s father as the love interest, and things get even more interesting as Catherine’s paranoia kicks in as to what Hal’s motives are.

Further complications arise as Catherine seems to be losing grip on reality and starts to make outrageous claims about everyone around her, forcing her sister in New York to try and encourage her into a facility near where she lives.

Neither a huge action spectacular, nor an edge of your seats thriller, but what proof does have, it has in spades: A great story, and absolutely fantastic acting.

Jake Gyllenhaal is truly lovable as Hal, whose genuine love for Catherine offers the only real stability for the characters of the movie, and Gwyneth Paltrow as Catherine digs real deep into her abilities and pulls off a mesmerising performance that brings focus to the story and overriding theme of the inseparable closeness of insanity and genius.

Food for thought:
Are people really insane just because they don’t conform to societies acceptable norms?

Rent or Buy?
Buy it, it’s a true masterpiece.