Proof
Miramax Films | Release Date: September 16, 2005 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 37 Critic Reviews
Positive:
27
Mixed:
10
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Paltrow gives the performance of the year, and perhaps of her career, in this extraordinary and powerful dissection of genius, jealousy, madness and serenity. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
An extraordinary thriller... The film centers on two remarkable performances, by Gwyneth Paltrow and Hope Davis. Read full review
100
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
It's so fluid and cinematic that it's hard to even envision how the piece worked on stage. Read full review
90
TimeRichard Corliss
Proof is on the side of the lost, blessed souls. Paltrow, as alluring and reassuring as ever, emphasizes the blessedness in the isolation of genius, giving a new dimension to a complex role. New, true and thrilling--she is the Catherine that Proof was waiting for. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
The material is intellectual, but the treatment is not. Proof is a stirring motion picture that challenges our views on a great many things about life, some of which we take for granted. And, by opening up the play, Madden has made it less talky and more cinematic without losing the quintessential elements that made it such a success on stage. Read full review
83
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Tasteful, thoughtful fare that entertains without ever speaking down to the audience. Read full review
80
VarietyDavid Rooney
But despite less-than-ideal casting of the male roles, and a tendency to soften the Pulitzer Prize-winning work's thorny humor with a more sober tone, director John Madden has woven together an elegant, intelligent drama of a breed increasingly rare in mainstream American movies. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKenneth Turan
Against considerable odds and despite a shaky start, Proof proves itself in every area. Read full review
75
Christian Science MonitorPeter Rainer
But at its highest level of ambition, Proof fails to deliver. The film becomes a psychological whodunit where Catherine is shown to be either a martyr to her father or else his intellectual equal. None of it is terribly convincing. Read full review
75
USA TodayClaudia Puig
Proof proves undeniably that the intimacy of a stage play can be re-created powerfully on screen. Read full review
75
TV Guide MagazineKen Fox
Hopkins plays "Hopkins," and the buff, terribly miscast Gyllenhaal will be convincing only to viewers who've never set foot on a university campus. What makes it worth seeing, however, is the extraordinary chemistry between the atypically raw and unguarded Paltrow and Davis, a fabulously talented actress once again testing her range with a performance unlike any she's given in the past. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldChristine Dolen
Very, very faithful to Proof the play. Read full review
75
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Once you get past that golden swag and curtain of hair, Paltrow's performance is devastating, cutting to the pith and marrow of parent-child relations. The other actors in this stagebound movie fare less well. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy Burr
Proof is proof that you can drain most of the juice out of a play and still have an enjoyable night at the movies. Read full review
70
The A.V. ClubScott Tobias
Hopkins' increasing disconnection with his fellow actors and the material nearly sabotages Proof, an otherwise-respectable adaptation of David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Read full review
70
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Engrossing. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
The source material has undergone some sentimental softening, though Hope Davis, as the heroine's sister, does a swell job of making sanity seem obnoxious. Read full review
70
Washington PostNelson Pressley
Paltrow is pretty commanding, even if Madden pushes things toward airlessness by keeping the camera so tight. Read full review
70
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
Its characters are complex and engaging, its central mystery pulls the action forward at a clip, and the performances by Paltrow and Davis are excellent. At the same time, it's a little too slick. Read full review
70
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
To play for an audience of one that is only a few feet away is different in concentration and shade from playing in the theater, and Madden, though the script lags a bit, has nonetheless helped his actors to render what were once theater scenes as film sequences. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterKirk Honeycutt
Gwyneth Paltrow is triumphant in this somewhat derivative and overly stage-bound film. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
In Proof, Paltrow plays yet another young woman who is being gnawed at by termites of instability, only this time out, her performance, rather than startling, is merely competent: earnest and overly familiar. Read full review
67
Baltimore SunMichael Sragow
You never believe that Paltrow's character is insane, even when she herself does. She has too sturdy a core. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve Davis
Loses something in its translation to celluloid. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
Who knew a drama about numbers could be so thrilling? Read full review
63
New York PostKyle Smith
Proof will put a lot of viewers right back where they left off in 12th-grade calculus: asleep. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick Groen
The result, like so many stout travellers from stage to screen, is respectable. Stolidly, bloodlessly, yawningly respectable. Read full review
60
EmpireAnna Smith
Paltrow does an excellent job as the shy loner, affecting youthful, sulky mannerisms without resorting to stereotype. Anthony Hopkins, meanwhile, brings both gravitas and dark humour as Catherine's mentally ill father, while Jake Gyllenhaal makes for an effective, if buff, maths geek. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Madden directed Paltrow in the play on the London stage, but he does his "Shakespeare in Love" goddess no favors by filling the screen with big close-ups that betray the theatrical origins of the piece and drain the movie of life and urgency. Proof hasn't been filmed at all -- it's been embalmed. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony Lane
What ensues is a devout communal effort, tricked out with various hops through time and space, to make us forget that it was a piece of theatre in the first place. Needless to say, the attempt is in vain. Read full review
50
Village VoiceDennis Lim
John Madden's competent, monotonous film version, not exactly stagebound but hardly freewheeling, only underscores its mechanical nature. Read full review
50
PremiereGlenn Kenny
The image of Gwyneth Paltrow looking anguish-stricken has become such a cinematic meme that it hardly bodes well for Proof that it opens with this sight. Read full review
50
SalonStephanie Zacharek
Proof isn't just a movie about mathematics; it's a mathematical movie. The scenes may as well have been laid out by diagram. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael Phillips
Madden honors the play's roots; he has not made the mistake of opening it up with a lot of obvious visual expansions. But the story's genial unpretentiousness has been darkened and weighed down, and what's left is less than prime. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalle
A goopy Gwyneth Paltrow movie. Read full review
40
Wall Street JournalJoe Morgenstern
I wish I could report the arrival of an impressive movie, but this one, for all its ostensibly big ideas about mathematics and wounded minds, struck me as an elaborate pretext for a synthetic love story.
40
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
It's funny how movies about smart people often play so dumb. Read full review
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