Proof Perfect Mental Examination

Proof
Miramax
Starring: Gwenyth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis
Written by David Auburn and Rebecca Miller, Adapted from a Play Written by David Auburn
Directed By: John Madden
Running Time: 100 minutes


Delicate care is needed to properly translate a stage play into a film. The two mediums feed off each other yet contain very exclusive elements. This delicate touch is needed to preserve the play’s integrity while opening the visuals of a scene being added. The director in a play sets his actors in motion to perform a play live. The film version is making decisions on angles and movements of scenes for a one time performance. Playwright/screenwriter/director David Mamet is the most adept at this switch, due to his familiarita man who began as a playwright and has shifted between the two mediums as both a writer and director. His big screen version of Glengarry Glen Ross used a very playlike staging environment with the most minimal of sets but still felt like a film.

Proof, the highly regarded Tony winner, is in good hands with another experienced stage turned film director John Madden (Shakespeare in Love). His reunion with Gwenyth Paltrow, which garnered Paltrow an Oscar last time out. Madden’s direction is minimal but perfectly intersperses film-like scenes of scenery settings with long mise-en-scene takes reminding the audience that this work, in its truest form, is a work of theatre. Madden doesn’t lavish the story with unnecessary sets, using one primary backdrop for most of the film’s scenes.

Proof’s plot centers around Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) coping with the death of her highly regarded Mathematician father Robert (Anthony Hopkins.) In his last years, Robert struggled with a debilitating mental disease. Catherine lived wither father in Chicago in order to take care of him, forgoing her own promising education.

Catherine is struggling with her father’s death as well as internal struggle within herself about the possibility of her own chemical imbalance. One of her father’s students Hal is her lone companion as she is quite closed off from those around her. With the impending funeral, her absentee, highly organized sister Claire (Hope Davis) from New York City arrives; adding to Catherine’s already embittered haze. Sounds like a pretty good comedy right?

David Auburn’s script, translated from his own play, is tightly polished with pointed dialogue and sublime, searing wit. Each member of talented assembly of actors digs into these characters, portraying the characters wholeheartedly under Madden’s direction. Paltrow’s screen presence is almost incomparable to any other role, she’s ever played. The role’s accentuated vulnerabilities teem with authenticity that gives clarity and meaning to the entire film. Gwyneth Paltrow’s understated performance is perfect here. I really never thought I’d say this but Paltrow was truly this film’s glue, utilizing a exquisite propensity for shifting emotional gears on a dime.

Even an airport scene, a locale that is often an Achilles heel Mrs. Paltrow Martin, mother of Apple, doesn’t detract from her performance. Her egregious career missteps have mostly come in movies centered around airplane travel like Bounce and A View From The Top, not to menton Sliding Doors, but that’s more train related.

Anthony Hopkins is perfectly cast as the anguished father who deeply cares for th well-bein of his daughter as he struggles with his own confusion and inner demons. Hope Davis takes on a role that differs from her often distraught and gloomy self; showing range in a role that seemed more palpable to Paltrow’s acting history. Jake Gyllenhaal is his likeable, goofy innocent reminiscent of Donnie Darko except that he’s in love with the confused person instead of being the confused person.

Interesting themes infuse Proof beyond the teetering line between insane and not. One of the best is the dichotomy in the mentality of two of the US’ major metropolises, New York City Chicago between Claire and Catherine, whom also represent academia versus the working world. These noteworthy cultural divides add multiple layers to the film’s story and dialogue, giving excellent points of discussion within the framework of Auburn’s script. Duality is a perfect sentiment that is expressed the manner of these two sisters. Claire sees importance in external appearances and stringent regimentation while Catherine for the most part doesn’t hide her emotions especially in her fantastic impromptu public speech during the funeral, one of the more memorable sequences in the film and in recent memory.

Proof has the soul of Good Will Hunting alongside the anguish of A Beautiful Mind. The surprising aspect of Proof is the way it has been buried. It seems to have garnered fittingly high critical notices and a built in audience who enjoy the play as well as the star power. But the promotion is lacking. My guess is it has something to do with it being a Miramax release as the end of the Weinstein era arrives. The push is missing. This is a movie you’d expect to be released in December but by that time Jake Gyllenhaal will have two other Oscar contending roles with Ang Lee’s gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain, and the intriguing Gulf War comedy-drama Jarhead. It would truly be a shame if Proof doesn’t get some type of notices in the awards season yet how shocking would it be to see movie’s that actually deserve awards being penalized for not being released at the right time.