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Proof
Director: John Madden
(2005)
Distributor: Buena Vista International UK
Certificate:
12A
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Main Characters:
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Proof is based on a stage play, and it shows. Most of the story takes place within the confines of one house and it is very easy to visualise how this would have worked on the stage. One warning: there is very little action. The bulk of the film consists of people sitting down and talking to each other, so if this is not your thing then steer clear. If it is your thing, however, there is much that you will appreciate about it, although I wonder if it would have worked better as a television drama rather than a full-blown feature film for which people have different expectations.
The four main characters are played by Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Jake Gyllenhaal and Hope Davis and I cannot fault any of their performances. Gwyneth Paltrow is particularly convincing as the haunted daughter of renowned mathematician turned “crazy”, Robert (played by a sympathetic Anthony Hopkins).
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The gist of the plot is this: In his early ‘20s, Robert developed two or three mathematical proofs that revolutionized various fields of mathematics. However, when he turned 26 he contracted a disease which meant that he couldn’t think straight any more and was officially “crazy”. His daughter, Catherine, refused to put him in a home so she looked after him herself, sacrificing her own mathematical studies in the process. Now she is worried that she has inherited her father’s disease and she is slowly going crazy herself. What is real, and what isn’t? Her father died a week ago, and now her older sister, Claire, wants to sell the house and put Catherine into care. However, Catherine has struck up a friendship with maths student, Hal, who is convinced she isn’t going crazy. Catherine produces an exercise book containing a detailed proof about prime numbers that mathematicians have been trying to find for centuries. Is she telling the truth when she says that she wrote the proof herself, even though the writing in the book looks like her father’s? If she didn’t write the proof, then maybe she is going crazy… |
This final plot point is my favourite part of the film, and through clever use of flashbacks you are kept guessing right to the end about who actually wrote the proof. There are also some very moving scenes between father and daughter, and Catherine’s older sister shows that you can seriously damage someone by being overly protective to the point of suffocation.
This film won’t break any box office records, but I’m glad it was made and it definitely got me thinking. It’s not one to watch at a party or late on a Friday night, though, as you have to concentrate on each word to follow the story.
THROUGH THE LENS OF CHRISTIAN FAITH
Some key themes: Can you prove that God exists? The possibility of starting again.
“Then some of the Pharisees and teachers of the law answered Jesus, saying, ‘Teacher, we want to see you work a miracle as a sign.’ Jesus answered, ‘Evil and sinful people are the ones who want to see a miracle for a sign. But no sign will be given to them, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Jonah was in the stomach of the big fish for three days and three nights. In the same way, the Son of Man will be in the grave three days and three nights’” (Matthew 12 v 38-40).
Since the concept of “proof” is at the heart of this film (obviously, as it happens to be the title!), I cannot help but think about proof for the existence of God. Can you prove that God exists? Or do we have to take the existence of God on faith? (There is a famous – and very funny – passage in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy where he “proves” that God doesn’t exist because he created something so mind-bogglingly useful that it proves he exists. Therefore, there is no room for faith and so he mustn’t exist!)
Jesus was asked for proof that he was who he said he was in the famous passage above. He could have proved it easily, yet he refused, using some strong words in the process: “Only evil and sinful people want proof, and I’m not going to give it to you!”
For once, I sympathise a little with the Pharisees. I might have asked the same question myself if I had been in their shoes. But then I am reminded of a scene in “Proof”. Catherine produces an exercise book full of mathematical workings out that are astonishing. They appear to be in her father’s handwriting and no one believes that she wrote this herself. She is challenged to prove that she was the author but she won’t. She is more upset that people don’t believe her! (Similarly, I admire Jesus in the passage in Matthew for refusing to do a few miracles just to satisfy the curiosity of the Pharisees – he is not some cheap magician to be ordered about.)
In the film, Hal takes the exercise book to his university where it is studied in detail by a group of experts. He tells Catherine that it is possible to prove that she didn’t write it, but he can never prove that she did write it, even if she did – it will just have to be a matter of trust and belief.
Just a thought: maybe it’s like this with God. It’s not up to us to prove that God exists. Rather, it’s up to others to prove that he doesn’t. As far as I know, no one has ever done this – and I don’t think they ever will!
The film “Proof” is also about new beginnings (being able to start again and make up for lost time), as well as having a positive image about yourself after refusing to believe the lies that people are saying about you. Sounds like being “born again” and receiving the love of God instead of listening to the lies of the devil.
Discussion questions....
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Proof work well as a film or should it have remained just a stage play?
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Why didn’t Jesus perform a few miracles for the Pharisees to convince
them? Surely he could have done this easily.
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Can you think of any proofs that God exists, or doesn’t?
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