Proof (John Madden, USA, 2005, 100mins)
John Madden’s humourless adaptation of David Auburn’s much-lauded Broadway play is a missed opportunity.
Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a young woman who has spent the last five years caring for her Father Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a once brilliant mathematical genius who is losing his mind. After he dies from an aneurism, Catherine inherits his large collection of notebooks. Ex-student of Robert’s, Hal (Jake Gylenhaal), is determined to read each one, in the hope that there may be fragments of his brilliant mind hidden amongst the nonsensical ramblings that fill most of the pages. Catherine, unable to cope with Hal’s advances, her father’s death and the presence of her super-organised but patronising sister Claire (Hope Davis), who is fresh off the plane from New York, begins to question her own sanity and wonders just how much of her father’s madness, or genius, she has inherited.
It is a challenge for film adaptations of plays not to feel stuck within the confines of the proscenium arch. Many plays-turned-films feel geographically static, unable to truly utilise the possibilities of the cinematic medium. Proof does not suffer from this particular problem, but it still feels like a filmed version of a play, thanks to Auburn and Rebecca Miller’s adaptation and central performances that fail to gauge the tone necessary for the screen. Thus we have overbearing performances from Paltrow and Davis and a clumsy and misjudged performance from Gylenhaal, who normally excels in subtle delivery. All the difficulties with the film stem from this central problem, as it is impossible to get caught up in or involved with characters that you don’t really believe. We never really feel sympathetic for the damaged and depressed Catherine or related to the vicious relationship between the two sisters. It is only in the scenes with Hopkins that we get an all too fleeting glimpse of something that feels real.
Madden says in the production notes to Proof that the film “explores a mystery whose solution lies somewhere between the certainties of mathematics and the shifting perspectives of human experience, and deals with the intangible values that are difficult to verify: trust, love and sanity.” If only it did. One wonders if the play touched on these interesting and vital issues that are filled to the brim with cinematic potential – the film merely brushes the surface before moving on to another barely-investigated psychological issue. The contrast between the certainty of mathematics with its absolutes and the uncertainty of life where chance, coincidence and subjective whim control our paths is fascinating and deserves artistic attention. Proof, however, never really sets up such a contrast, nor engages us enough in the character’s plights to make us truly care about them, or the theoretical possibilities of the script.
That is not to say that the film has its moments – there are one or two scenes that are deftly written and well performed, but these are too few and far between to rescue a film that is flat, uninspired and uninteresting.
Review by Barnaby Welch
Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a young woman who has spent the last five years caring for her Father Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a once brilliant mathematical genius who is losing his mind. After he dies from an aneurism, Catherine inherits his large collection of notebooks. Ex-student of Robert’s, Hal (Jake Gylenhaal), is determined to read each one, in the hope that there may be fragments of his brilliant mind hidden amongst the nonsensical ramblings that fill most of the pages. Catherine, unable to cope with Hal’s advances, her father’s death and the presence of her super-organised but patronising sister Claire (Hope Davis), who is fresh off the plane from New York, begins to question her own sanity and wonders just how much of her father’s madness, or genius, she has inherited.
It is a challenge for film adaptations of plays not to feel stuck within the confines of the proscenium arch. Many plays-turned-films feel geographically static, unable to truly utilise the possibilities of the cinematic medium. Proof does not suffer from this particular problem, but it still feels like a filmed version of a play, thanks to Auburn and Rebecca Miller’s adaptation and central performances that fail to gauge the tone necessary for the screen. Thus we have overbearing performances from Paltrow and Davis and a clumsy and misjudged performance from Gylenhaal, who normally excels in subtle delivery. All the difficulties with the film stem from this central problem, as it is impossible to get caught up in or involved with characters that you don’t really believe. We never really feel sympathetic for the damaged and depressed Catherine or related to the vicious relationship between the two sisters. It is only in the scenes with Hopkins that we get an all too fleeting glimpse of something that feels real.
Madden says in the production notes to Proof that the film “explores a mystery whose solution lies somewhere between the certainties of mathematics and the shifting perspectives of human experience, and deals with the intangible values that are difficult to verify: trust, love and sanity.” If only it did. One wonders if the play touched on these interesting and vital issues that are filled to the brim with cinematic potential – the film merely brushes the surface before moving on to another barely-investigated psychological issue. The contrast between the certainty of mathematics with its absolutes and the uncertainty of life where chance, coincidence and subjective whim control our paths is fascinating and deserves artistic attention. Proof, however, never really sets up such a contrast, nor engages us enough in the character’s plights to make us truly care about them, or the theoretical possibilities of the script.
That is not to say that the film has its moments – there are one or two scenes that are deftly written and well performed, but these are too few and far between to rescue a film that is flat, uninspired and uninteresting.
Review by Barnaby Welch
posted by Barnaby at 2:02 PM
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