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John Madden directs Gwyneth Paltrow for the screen for the first time since their wonderful collaboration on Shakespeare in Love.  Proof is an emotionally powerful film that explores mental deterioration and the toll it takes on the caregiver.

Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a gifted mathematics student at Northwestern.  Her analytic musings pull her away from the problem sets her professors require, seemingly quite compulsive about the complex mathematical principles that occupy her mind.  She comes by her talents naturally.  Her father, Robert (Anthony Hopkins), was a brilliant mathematician who made precedent-setting, revolutionary contributions to mathematics and science.  But his best work was produced in his mid-twenties, and for decades he’s suffered from the frustrations of not being able to conceive similarly original work.

His plight is complicated by delusional aberrations, an insidious mental disorder that is slowly robbing him of his sanity and intellect.  Regardless, he’s been kept on the staff of the University of Chicago; he may no longer be productive, but his contributions were so significant that the institution continues to support him.  But he is no longer self-sufficient.  Catherine’s love for her father compels her to give up her studies to return to her home to care for him.  And as she’s thrust into his irrationality, she begins to fear for her future, afraid that her fate will be to fall victim to a similar psychosis.

As the film opens, Catherine finds herself in conversation with her father.  The observant will notice that Robert does not touch anything in the physical world.  And indeed, by the time we reach the end of the exchange in which Robert tries to reassure her that her fate is not necessarily insanity, he reminds her that he’s dead.  We soon learn that an older sister, Claire (Hope Davis), is on the way from New York to help plan and attend his funeral.

Claire may not be as brilliant as her younger sister, but she’s certainly more socially successful, better organized, and excessively protective.  Claire has not only come to help with the funeral, she’s come to rescue Catherine from herself.  Claire has sold the house from under Catherine and insists that her sister move to New York where Claire can keep an eye on her.  She’s even investigated the possibility of commitment.  Claire is intrusively domineering.

Her motivation is, in no small part, derived from Catherine’s eccentric behavior.  Emotionally, Catherine is extremely fragile, exhausted from caring from her father, devastated by his deterioration and eventual death, haunted by the potential that she may share a similar fate, and isolated by the demands of his care.  Is it any wonder that Catherine isn’t quite normal of late?

Claire’s whisking Catherine to another city nine hundred miles away also affects Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal).  He’s one of Robert’s former students, and now teaches math at the University; he’s hopelessly in love with Catherine.  But she’s erected emotional barriers, and although she trusts him enough to allow him to examine the hundreds of notebooks Robert filled in his mental delirium, she also fears that he’ll find and steal a precious proof.  It is the nature of that proof and how it affects the interrelationships that becomes the plot device that drives the film forward toward Catherine’s emotional rescue.

Despite the heavy themes, the film is punctuated with lovely little bits of humor.  Catherine’s eccentricities and her inability to tolerate foolishness provide wonderful opportunities for caustic wit.  And although the film wisely distances itself from any mathematical exposition, there is one droll, mathematical in-joke related to the symbol for imaginary numbers.

The film is told in a non-linear fashion.  Flashbacks and daydream sequences that smack of delusion ultimately put the pieces in place, allowing the viewer to integrate the parts into one cohesive whole.  The principal actors are all splendid, but Gwyneth Paltrow is particularly outstanding in this film.  Her Catherine is so fragile, in such distress, that the viewer can’t help but empathize and hope for her rescue.  Based on the structure and the dialog, I found the film cried out stage play.  And as I explored the supplements, I discovered that Madden had directed Paltrow in a London stage production of Proof prior to the filming. Bringing the play to the screen may have created challenges to the filmmakers to open the story up, making it less confined, but it also provided Paltrow with the wonderful advantage of having already inhabited this character.  She was nominated but did not win the Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture Drama; that nomination is very well deserved.

The Video: How Does The Disc Look?

The film’s theatrical aspect ratio of 2.35:1 is presented in anamorphic video.  This is another disappointing transfer from Miramax.  Contaminated by intrusive edge halos and softer than is excusable after nine years of DVD development, I cannot understand why Miramax continues to produce these sub-par DVDs.  I’m almost at the point where I’m beginning to suspect that it’s being done intentionally to discourage piracy.  The color palette is somewhat subdued, perhaps in an attempt to make this serious film even less cheerful.  Finely grained textures are moderately visible in extreme close-up, but as soon as the camera pulls back slightly, textures vanish.  As you’d expect, small object detail suffers a similar fate; foliage on trees and shrubbery become amorphous blobs of color rather than individual leaves.  The video dynamic range is fine, with reasonable shadow detail.  Messy and disappointing, the video quality does not diminish the fine performances; it simply distracts.

The Audio: How Does The Disc Sound?

The Dolby Digital 5.1 track is quite nice.  It is predominantly front centric.  This is, after all, a dialog driven film.  The surrounds occasionally kick in with a few ambient or environmental sounds, like during a sequence on a Chicago highway.  Deep bass is neither present nor missed.  Sound effects simply serve the images.  The melancholy orchestral score by Stephen Warbeck sets an appropriate mood; it’s presented with authority and admirable clarity.   The dialog is distortion-free throughout, but lacks the illusion of presence. 

The alternate language is in French.  Optional subtitles are in Spanish and English.

Supplements: What Goodies Are There?

The disc opens with a group of preprogrammed full screen trailers (5:51) for: An Unfinished Life; Shadows in the Sun; Everything You Want; and, Daltry Calhoun.  Edited into that flow, the group ends with a now familiar slick anti- piracy promo.  Thankfully, they may be skipped with the next chapter button. 

Director John Madden may be heard in a feature-length commentary.  This is a very intelligent discussion of his artistic approach to the material.  It’s here that we learn of the film’s source material; that provokes a discussion of the differences between a stage play and a film.  There are lapses into descriptions of character motivations and the plot, but Madden always seems to pull the discussion back to how those affected his filmmaking decisions.  I very much enjoyed his erudite monolog.

From Stage to Screen: The Making of Proof (9:42) is the disc’s non- anamorphic featurette.  This is a blend of the usual frothy descriptions of the characters and the storyline combined with some background information.  The short is punctuated with black and white stills from the London stage production that was written by David Auburn and which he and co-screenwriter Rebecca Miller adopted for film.  There are no spoilers here, but I think you would be better served by watching the feature film first.

There are three deleted scenes that may be viewed with optional commentary by director John Madden.  You’re Not a Real Number (1:21) is an unnecessary mathematical analogy to the presence of Catherine’s father after his death.  Harold Dobbs Exists! (4:23) is an extended version of the shopping scene that helps define the relationship between Catherine and her sister Claire.  The director’s rationale for the trimming of the scene is the most interesting aspect of that supplement.  Are You Having an Affair? (1:33) is a scene that helps define Catherine’s life as a student before she drops out to care for her father.  It’s a good scene that would have disrupted the flow had it be edited into its intended location.

The 99-minute film is organized into fifteen chapters.

Exclusive DVD-ROM Features: What happens when you pop the disc into your PC?

There are no DVD-ROM features on this DVD.

Final Thoughts

This is a wonderfully compelling film about a brilliant woman trapped by the consequences of a cruel fate that destroys a remarkably capable mind.  The supplements don’t have great depth and breadth, but they are satisfying nonetheless.  I wish I could say the same for the video.  But the audio is sufficiently satisfying and the sub-par transfer does not take much away from the emotional impact of the film.  Recommended.