Scooter Chronicles

Yesterday afternoon, my parents, Marcia, and I went to see “Proof”, starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Jake Gyllenhaal, Anthony Hopkins, and Hope Davis. This is a film adaptation of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning play.

The basis of the story is this (thanks to IMDB):

Catherine Llewellyn (Paltrow), daughter of the brilliant but mentally disturbed mathematician Robert Llewellyn (Hopkins), recently deceased, tries to come to grips with her possible inheritance: his insanity. Complicating matters are one of her father’s ex-students, Hal Dobbs (Gyllenhaal), who wants to search through his papers and her estranged sister Claire (Davis) who shows up to help settle his affairs.

I never saw the play, and quite honestly didn’t know it was based on a play until a couple of hours before we saw it. I have read a couple of reviews that say it is a good adaptation of the play, sticking to the heart of the matter: Catherine’s problems with possible mental illness and her ability in the field of mathematics.

Of course there is love interest between Catherine and Hal, but how it is portrayed worked really well with the film. It’s not overdone for Hollywood. It may have helped, not only this but the good reviews, that the playwright also was the screenwriter. The tension between Catherine and Claire stem from two sides. First, Catherine’s care of their father during his last years facing mental illness. The second is Claire’s insistence that Catherine move to New York with her (Catherine and her father lived in Chicago), but with ideas to get Catherine help now, regardless of her condition or desires.

There are sections of the film that are flashbacks, and they are not readily marked. There was also times when Catherine is talking to her father, but it is not reality. At first when this started to happen, I was worried that it would get confusing. But it wasn’t, and it really helped key in the points of the plot and let you into the truths behind the secrets and/or questions. And the movie was very well paced. It is just over an hour and a half, and with 15 minutes to go I was amazed at how far the film progressed without me wondering when it was going to end.

The voices of Hollywood critics are saying that Gwyneth Paltrow will get an Oscar nomination for this performance. I would agree. She really presented someone that is truly struggling with many things. Though the rest of the cast won’t get nods, I think Hopkins and Davis also helped with good performances. Gyllenhaal wasn’t bad either.

Overall, I really enjoyed the movie. It has been a while since Marcia and I went to see something at the theater. It was nice to see something that was worthy of the money. Also, you don’t need to be a math geek to enjoy it. Actually those looking for a lot of mathematics will be disappointed.