Film Review: Proof (2005) C+

Date Viewed: 6/22/06
Venue: DVD

Stage to screen adaptations are always tricky. Live theater’s greatest asset is an actor’s ability to create a performance and a character right before our eyes. We’re often willing to forgive a bland narrative is it’s accompanied by a riveting performance on stage. Film is not always so forgiving. Proof is well…proof of that.

Based on an award-winning stage production and directed by John Madden (sigh, not that John Madden, you football freaks. The guy who did Shakespeare In Love.), Proof stars Gwyneth Paltrow as the caregiver daughter of a recently deceased mad math genius (Anthony Hopkins). She must deal with her anguish over his passing, as well as her own fears of hereditary insanity and a cloyingly overbearing older sister (Hope Davis). Further complicating things is Jake Gyllehaal (who I firmly believe was in every film of 2005), Gwennie’s love interest and father’s former student who hangs around searching father’s hardscrabble journals for any final mathematical breakthrough.

If it doesn’t sound enthralling, don’t blame me. The real crux of the story is Paltrow coming to terms with the choices she’s made (giving up college to take care of father in his final years) and taking control of her life. Paltrow does in fact carry the film with a strong performance.

However, Proof can’t overcome its lofty theatrical origins. Scenes are long with dialog that I’m sure worked on stage, but drag here. The story meanders with no clear direction or sense of unity. What little tension the story eventually provides is ruined because any semi-conscious moviegoer will figure the outcome immediately.

Proof does offer strong performances if you are into that, but otherwise it’s a stuffy theater piece that should’ve stayed under the proscenium.