Review: Proof
Thursday, May 31st, 2007For a story about a groundbreaking mathematical proof, Proof had virtually zero math in it.
If you ask me, that’s a good thing.
Let me put my review in the form of a mathematical equation, though. (Because I can. Yes, I know it’s a cheap thrill and there’s no real point to it, but it makes me happy, and that’s what’s important. Go ahead; sit there and mock, you cowards who won’t even comment.)
(Gwyneth Paltrow) + (Anthony Hopkins) + (Award Winning Stage Play script) - (Jake Gyllenhaal) = (a very good movie)
Okay, that was a cheap shot at Jake. I actually think he did a really good job in the movie despite, as my wife pointed out, not looking enough like a geek to be a mathematician.
The mood of the film was very important in selling it to me. The director did an excellent job, through pacing, different camera shots, and of course the actors, of creating a situation where you weren’t really sure whether Catherine was loosing her mind. You could go either way… it could just be the pressure of her father’s death after giving up her life to care for him, plus the arrival of her well-meaning, but overbearing sister that’s making her act a little flat, or she really could be succumbing to schizophrenia. She wonders if she’s going over the edge from the very beginning of the movie, and you take the journey with her. To me, that was the real focus of the movie: is she going nuts? Can Hal stabalize her?
While I liked it quite a bit, though, it didn’t make me sit back and go “wow” at the end. It was a good film, engrossing, but didn’t leave me either excited or pondering life. I wouldn’t have minded seeing a little more of a triumph at the end, but that would have been the “Hollywood ending”, and I’m glad they didn’t do that, since it kept it more real. The question that remained open about her future was more satisfying, if not as exciting.
This is a hard one for me to rate, honestly. I really liked it, but it didn’t touch me as deeply as I’d hoped. Maybe it will for you.
For now…. three and half stars.
Technorati Tags: Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal, mathematics, stage to screen
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