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October 03, 2005
Proof
Note to self: Never go see another movie based on a play.
The movie PROOF is another example of a play adapted and expanded into a screenplay, but maintaining the same stage dialogue that renders it unnatural and uninvolving as a film. You can't fault the adapter (whether it's the original playwright or not) for keeping the dialogue -- it's the dialogue that made the play successful in the first place. But where stage audiences expect people to speak in metaphysical truths and bring emotional power to every single scene, in a movie it always just makes me say "people don't really talk like that."
There are 3 themes to Proof. The first is a sort of suspense-filled thriller about an actual mathematical proof. There are those people who will say a mathematical proof cannot provide suspense or even interest. I'd have to side with those people. A small part of the movie is a love story between Gwyneth Paltrow and Jake Gyllenhall. This was the part I thought worked the best, but was underplayed (on purpose, I suppose, as it's only there to bring out the 2 main themes.)
The main theme is the question of whether the main character has inherited her father's tendency toward madness, whether she is in fact crazy herself. Though played very well by Gyllenhall and Hope Davis as Paltrow's sister, Paltrow never seems to show the fear herself. She is a little too confident that she isn't crazy and does more reacting to the betrayal of her boyfriend and her sister than to any inward conflict.
The people who probably most appreciate adaptations of plays are movie actors and actresses, because they get to display more "art" with stage dialogue. The performances here, except for Anthony Hopkins, who doesn't show much madness or genius as the father, are very good. Hope Davis is great as the sister who worries about her sister, but isn't close enough to do much about it. And Gwyneth Paltrow is terrific, just barely failing to hide her feelings of guilt and relief at the death of her father.
However, as an MIT graduate, I can confidently say there are not any theoretical mathematicians as good looking as Gwyneth Paltrow or Jake Gyllenhall. Sorry, doesn't happen.
Posted by JoshHornik at October 3, 2005 05:39 PM