Possible spoilers within, as always.

Wasn't this supposed to be released a year ago, or so? And isn't it supposed to be a bad sign when a movie is pushed back so far? (Serious questions, btw.) Well, regardless, it's here now, and for that I am glad.

The film is the best handling of the descent into madness - or, here, the overwhelming possibility of it - since A Beautiful Mind (say what you will about that film, I love it, and find this nearly/just as good).

When a great mathematician falls ill, his daughter quits school and essentially puts her life on hold for five years to take care of him. Now that he has past away, Catherine must deal with all that's left behind, the haunting memories of her last years with her father, and a nearly self destructing fear that she has inherited not only mathematical genius, but a tendency toward insanity. Plus she has to deal with Hal, her father's favorite student, and Claire, her sister and the antithesis to all that she has become.

The film is probably the best straight-up movie I've seen all year. It tells an incredible story of Catherine's physical and emotional response to losing the most important person to her, which in itself is powerful and engaging. It also, however, explains with amazing details her relationship with her father. And there the film succeeds even greater. Just the way the relation between father and daughter plays out on screen is so perfect. The scene in which her father makes his "last" great discovery nearly had me in tears. Well, that's a lie...but it might have, if I had tear ducts.

I guess that brings me to this: Gwyneth Paltrow gives the single best performance of the year for my money. Her scenes with her father are acted with such love and care that her pain became mine (especially the aforementioned "discovery" scene.) Likewise, I hated her sister just as much as she did. It's such a ranged performance, but she never missteps. All of the supporters were fine in their own right, but they are there to help Gwyneth become Catherine and tell her story. If who ever is in charge gets their act together and pushes this film wide enough that people see it, and it is remembered come early 2006 I wouldn't be at all surprised with a nomination and even win for the leading lady.

Please, see this film. I had to take 90 minutes worth of bus to get there, but it was definitely worth it. Hopefully it expands wide enough that some others get to see it. And I also hope I'm not hyping it up too much. I'd hate for someone to be disappointed because I loved it so much. But for me, I've seen nothing like it this year.
(On the other hand, perhaps I AM over hyping it. I didn't feel this strong about it until I sat down to write this (still would have had it at the top of the year, though), but I'm pretty sure it's sincere.)

This is the best movie of the year. That's right - you heard it hear first. This is a classic film for the ages - yup, they'll be studyin' this one in film school in 2305. Naturally then, it's on my top ten list for this year, and vaults on to my all-time top ten list (Sorry, Vertigo, but I'll always still love you too!)

How often do we get a math comedy?

Well, I'll tell ya - it's freakin' super rare! Sure, we get pure math melodrama occasionally, most recently with the over-rated A Beautiful Mind, but here we have a perfect gem of extraordinary emotional clarity. It's brilliant.

I won't say much else specific about the plot - please, please - discover it on your own! Don't read the synopsis, don't read the reviews, don't read the comments in this thread until you have personally witnessed this historical movie event. The acting though is outstanding - Jake Gyllenhall, building on his groundbreaking comedic work in Bubble Boy (perhaps the all-time under-rated comedy!), plus of course, Gwyneth Paltrow - note perfect as always, and Anthony Hopkins, say no more...

7 out of 5.

(Note: Re: Scoring System - I rate all the movies I see on a scale of 1 - 5, based on my first impressions upon viewing them. This summer, I broke precedent and rated the movie The 40 Year Old Virgin 6 out of 5 - my first 5+ rating ever. Now, with the experience of seeing Proof tonight, I have had the most humble honor of plowing fresh ground yet again...)

Wow! First two reviews both exclaiming best movie of the year status. Awesome.

Is nobody else gonna go see this great movie?

Based on the play by David Auburn, Proof is one of the many projects that was rushed to release when it was announced that the Weinstein Brothers were leaving Miramax Films to form their own production company. It had been sitting on the shelf for a year for no particular reason. It had an all-star cast, early reviews were fantastic and it seemed to be a shoo-in for awards consideration. However, it was postponed and released quietly in the fall of 2005. It's quite a shame, because this is easily one of the biggest and most delightful surprises of the year.

Gwyneth Paltrow reunites with Shakespeare In Love director John Madden with this project, playing the emotionally fragile Catherine - a woman coping with the death of her beloved mathemetician father Robert (Anthony Hopkins), a brilliant man who was also mentally unbalanced. While coming to terms with her loss, she becomes afraid that she has inherited her father's insanity. Her spoiled and self-involved sister (Hope Davis) wants her to move to New York with her so she can be cared for. It is obvious that the two do not have a strong relationship. Jake Gyllenhaal portrays Hal, a mathematician searching for genius amongst Robert's numerous files. He soon becomes close with the grieving Catherine and the two develop a relationship. But everything changes when a proof is discovered beneath the clutter, one that has never been proven before. The real question, however, is who wrote it.

Proof is a film that relies heavily on excellent performances, and each one of the leads delivers in every way possible. Gwyneth Paltrow is amazing here, delivering her best performance since Shakespeare In Love and one of the best female performances of the year. She literally becomes the vulnerable and extremely complex character of Catherine, diving beneath the layers. Her performance is powerful and moving, the real driving force behind the film. This is quite a personal project to Paltrow, with the death of her own father occuring right before the shooting began.

Anthony Hopkins is also great and convincingly shows his character's slow downfall. But he also handles the emotional scenes quite well and his character's love for his daughter feels very realistic. Jake Gyllenhaal is slowly on his way to becoming my favorite actor, always taking on challenging yet interesting roles that show his true talent. After his amazing turn in Jarhead, he once again excels as the caring Hal, the only one who truly believes in Catherine. He has good chemistry with Paltrow and is very likable in his portrayl. Hope Davis does a good job as well, and even though her character is almost unlikable in a way, the motivation behind her actions is very evident.

The one minor problem I had with Proof was that it occassionally felt too stagey. Director John Madden did little to change the concept of the story and things here play out similarly as they would onstage. Other than that, his direction is solid. The screenplay is excellent, full of memorable dialogue and powerful scenes.

I didn't expect to enjoy Proof as much as I did, but it won me over with its fascinating characters, interesting story and brilliant performances. There's no doubt about it, this is easily one of the year's very best films.

9/10 (A)

*** saw it - just great as the above have stated***, Gwennie, Hopkins, and always liked Hope Davis.

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only disappointing thing is that I heard Gwennie is giving up movies to have her next baby > ? > Pear, Orange, Tangerine, Banana ?

I thought Gwyneth Paltrow was just too much at times; I think she could have played it more sympathetic and have maintained just as much nuance, if not more. And I thought it occasionally felt too written, especially in some of the scenes with Paltrow and Gyllenhaal.

But other than that, honestly, I thought it was surprisingly elegant. Sleek, resonant, extremely intelligent, and great integration of flashbacks.

A/A-

C. If you've seen the trailer, you've seen the whole movie. Except the movie itself is uninteresting and uncompelling and doesn't bother to resolve anything. I'm assuming that people involved in academia will like this movie more than others. Gwyneth Paltrow and Hope Davis give good performances but Jake Gyllenhaal is subpar as usual.

Strong film. I didn't really expect to like it much, as I only saw it for Anthony Hopkins, but it's surprisingly good. If not for an underwhelming finish, I think it could have been excellent. But, yeah, great performances and use of flashbacks.

B+

Great movie. Everything and everyone was good across the board. However, nothing was truly great or remarkable about the movie. The editing and directing was used well, in terms of using the flashbacks to reveal parts of the story. Additionally, I loved how we were never actually quite sure if Cwenyth's character was crazy or not until the end. Checmistry between all of the leads was *spot on*. The actors really turned a pretty above-average script into quite a memorable drama.

B+

B-


What exactly is so great about this movie? I read so many praises over it on here and other sites...I just don't get it. I watched it a couple of days ago and it didn't really touch me or move me or compel me. It is just a very simple, decent straight-up drama, not really far above average. Anthony Hopkins delivered the best performance of the cast, though the rest was decent as well (not great). Whatever happend on-screen...I just didn't really care. There are a couple of funny moments. They worked. The dramatic ones didn't. It doesn't help the matter that the movie is very predictable too.

There is one thing that was great in this film and it has been mentioned by everyone here - the flashbacks. The beginning scene in which Catherine talks to her dead father and out of nowhere he says that he's dead...that really took be aback and shocked me. That was the only truly unpredictable scene in the whole film.

A good movie. Gwyneth Paltrow was excellent, even better than in Shakespeare in Love.

B-

Good movie, but not great. Paltrow was good, her best performance since Shakespeare In Love, but not Oscar-worthy. I wanted a little bit more out of Anthony Hopkins character. My grade: B+.

Nothing special for me. Paltrow got on my nerves really fast and the story wasn't very engaging. C-