Adapted from David Auburn's play titled
Proof, this movie stars Gwyneth Paltrow as Catherine daughter to brilliant mathematician, Anthony Hopkins as Robert the genius mathematician, Jake Gyllenhaal as Hal doctoral candidate whose adviser was Robert, and Hope Davis as Claire older sister to Catherine. Robert was a genius mathematician and professor at the University of Chicago who made brilliant contributions to mathematics but later in life suffered from schizophrenia. After becoming mentally ill, his youngest daughter Catherine quits school to take care of her father who is often no longer coherent and unable to take care of himself. Against the wishes of her older sister Claire, Catherine refuses to allow their father to be institutionalized and chooses to take care of her father herself, letting him stay in his own house. This goes on for about five years after which Robert passes away. During the five years, there is one year when her father seems to recover becoming almost fully lucid. However as Catherine describes, except for that one year when her father's illness went into remission, her father would talk to himself, be convinced that aliens were trying to communicate with him in code using the dewey decimal numbers on library books, scribble nonsense into notebooks, and stink due to the fact that he would refuse to bathe. Obviously it was a very tough five years for a daughter to watch the father who she loved deteriorate. After the father's passing, Claire her older sister comes to visit Catherine and to attend her late father's funeral. Not long after the funeral, one day when Catherine reveals to Claire and Hal that she is the author of a proof for a complex mathematical theory having to do with prime numbers, both Claire and Hal do not believe this and insist that the proof must have been written by their late father. Although they are aware that Catherine is a great mathematician in her own right, they cannot believe that such complex and advanced work could have been written by Catherine. For her part, Claire the older sister fears that Catherine is losing her mind. The older sister becomes concerned that the same tendencies for mental illness which were exhibited by their late father may have been inherited by her younger sister Catherine. Despite Catherine's pleas, both Hal and her own sister demand some proof. The movie takes place on a university campus and the movie is reminescent of a similar movie titled
A Beautiful Mind. This current movie goes beyond academic mathematical proofs and delves into the topic of personal relationships, and the proof of love, proof of trust, and that often it is the choosing to believe that is truly important as there cannot be absolute proof on some things.
