Movie Review: Proof

Fighting Nun and I caught this the other night after missing most of the ending to The Ringer (I Know) and grumpily acknowledging that we'll actually have to watch The Ringer in its entirety now to watch the ending (I. Know.) I'll save you the details and just say that it is as stupid as it looks. So we watched Proof. I remember hearing about it but didn't know what to expect. It sounded simplistic but good. I have to say it was good. Infuriatingly good. I mean, you know for a big chunk of the time that they, with the exception of Jake Gylenhaal, are all playing unsympathetic characters, but they are playing the characters sympathetically, you know? I mean, everyone in the cast, from Anthony Hopkins, Gwynet to Hope Davis put the work in, made the characters what they were, instead of utterly unlikable characatures. I detested Hope Davis's character, but I could see where she was coming from, what her angle was, because Hope Davis made it obvious while still being subtle. Gwyneth, for her part, was brilliantly neurotic. I mean it was infuriating in parts, but it was endearing. The part where she and Jake are getting it on in her bedroom during her father's funeral after-party and she stops and starts kissing him and then, right as they're really getting into it, she cries? I haven't seen such a saddenly neurotic coital performance since Jane Fonda in Stanley and Iris.

I was kind of tired of the story jumping back and forth in time because at the very end it didn't really give us anything we didn't already know. If it wanted us to have a revelation through that last jumpback, well then it failed. That last bit with Anthony Hopkins just felt flat. Spoiler alert: I mean, I don't think I bought that she never wrote the proof. Somehow, I just believed from the beginning that she was capable of it and that Anthony's character was not, so the ending revelation that she did write it just didn't feel like a revelation at all.

And I've pretty much avoided this up until now, but I think it's worth noting. Well it's probably not worth noting but I'm going to note it anyway... Jake Gylenhaal in this role? Yummy. I mean Wow. Just. I mean... yeah, Wow is all I got. I have always had affections for the cute boys who go for the slightly neurotic girls and he is no exception. I loved his character (He plays drums in a band with other mathmaticians? Awesome!). He was perfect. Yeah Jake!!! More roles like this please! Thank you.