Proof

Just saw a small, sweet movie - Proof. It's based on a Pulitzer-winning play and all the reviews I had read about it were mixed. So I went into it without a lot of expectations and was pleasantly surprised.

Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins and Jake Gyllenhaal, Proof is a story about a young woman Catherine (Paltrow), daughter of a brilliant mathematician (Hopkins) who leaves college and any semblance of a real life to look after her father when he becomes mentally ill. Years of taking care of her unstable father leaves her little scope for furthering her own mathematical genius. And when her father dies and when her less-than-understanding sister comes back home for the funeral, Catherine begins to doubt her own mental stability, especially since she knows she has inherited some of her father's genius. Things come to a head when one of her father's pupils and her lover Hal (Gyllenhaal) discovers a notebook filled with the construction of a 'proof', that both he and Catherine's sister attribute to her father but which she herself claims to be her own.

It's not a long story, but it explores the thin line between genius and insanity with a lot of power. Short, sweet and well-told is how I would describe the film. I am not terribly fond of either Paltrow or Gyllenhaal. But in this movie, they fit their roles admirably. Paltrow's terribly waxy, pale skin is a downer, though.

Proof is a good movie, not one of the great ones for sure. But it has its moments. Worth a watch, I would say.