Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
76
(500) Days of Summer
60
9
17
All About Steve
37
Amelia
53
Astro Boy
66
Bandslam
45
Box, The
61
Capitalism: A Love Story
55
Christmas Carol, A
43
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant
66
Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs
29
Collector, The
23
Couples Retreat
80
District 9
61
Extract
39
Fame
xx
Fantastic Mr. Fox
30
Final Destination, The
34
Fourth Kind, The
60
Funny People
32
G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra
27
Gamer
41
G-Force
39
Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, The
46
Halloween II
73
Hangover, The
78
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
55
I Can Do Bad All By Myself
66
Informant!, The
69
Inglourious Basterds
58
Invention of Lying, The
47
Jennifer's Body
66
Julie & Julia
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Love Happens
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
67
Michael Jackson's This Is It
51
My Sister's Keeper
42
Orphan
28
Pandorum
63
Perfect Getaway, A
86
Ponyo![]()
35
Post Grad
48
Proposal, The
30
Saw VI
53
Shorts
24
Sorority Row
83
Star Trek![]()
33
Stepfather, The
45
Surrogates
55
Taking Woodstock
47
Time Traveler's Wife
96
Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3D![]()
35
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
28
Ugly Truth, The
88
Up![]()
71
Where the Wild Things Are
67
Whip It
28
Whiteout
73
Zombieland
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
58
(Untitled)
96
35 Shots of Rum![]()
56
Adam
72
Adela
39
Adventures of Power
78
Afghan Star
61
After the Storm
66
Afterschool
xx
All the Best
58
American Casino
72
Amreeka
48
Antichrist
73
Araya
62
Art & Copy
55
As Seen Through These Eyes
76
Baader Meinhof Complex, The
86
Beaches of Agnes, The![]()
13
Beautiful Life, A
70
Beeswax
35
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
71
Big Fan
66
Black Dynamite
51
Blind Date
xx
Blind Pig Who Wants to Fly
76
Bliss
35
Blue Tooth Virgin, The
26
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
57
Boys Are Back, The
45
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men
81
Bright Star![]()
70
Bronson
45
Burning Plain, The
xx
Carriers
55
Casi Divas
57
Chelsea on the Rocks
62
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
69
Cold Souls
59
Collapse
44
Confessionsofa Ex-Doofus-ItchyFooted Mutha
82
Cove, The![]()
75
Crude
82
Damned United, The![]()
67
Departures
xx
Dil Bole Hadippa
71
Disgrace
xx
Do Knot Disturb
70
Earth Days
24
Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat
85
Education, An![]()
55
Endgame
xx
Eulogy for a Vampire
xx
Everyone Else
xx
Fatal Promises
56
Fifty Dead Men Walking
62
Five Minutes of Heaven
74
Flame & Citron
49
Food Beware: The French Organic Revolution
80
Food, Inc.
28
Free Style
xx
From Mexico with Love
50
Fuel
25
Gentlemen Broncos
50
Give Me Your Hand
58
Gogol Bordello Non-Stop
72
Good Hair
89
Goodbye Solo![]()
52
Grace
66
Harmony and Me
81
Headless Woman, The![]()
xx
Heretics, The
63
Horse Boy, The
73
House of the Devil, The
xx
How to Seduce Difficult Women
74
Humpday
94
Hurt Locker, The![]()
29
I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell
16
If One Thing Matters: A Film About Wolfgang Tillmans
75
In Search of Beethoven
83
In the Loop![]()
61
Intimate Enemies
42
Irene in Time
70
It Might Get Loud
46
Killing Kasztner
19
Labor Day
xx
Laila's Birthday
41
Little Ashes
41
Little Traitor, The
66
Liverpool
34
Looking for Palladin
80
Lorna's Silence
83
Maid, The![]()
xx
Ministers, The
59
More Than a Game
67
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
34
Motherhood
62
My One and Only
xx
Mystery Team
48
New York, I Love You
73
Night and Day
66
No Impact Man
47
Ong Bak 2: The Beginning
34
Other Man, The
xx
Painter Sam Francis, The
54
Paper Heart
xx
Paradise
68
Paranormal Activity
68
Paris
44
Peter and Vandy
35
Play the Game
77
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
xx
Pretty Ugly People
65
Providence Effect, The
76
Rembrandt's J'accuse
69
September Issue, The
79
Serious Man, A
40
Shrink
61
Skin
77
Skin Too Few: The Days of Nick Drake, A
xx
Skiptracers
46
Splinterheads
39
St. Trinian's
89
Still Walking![]()
50
Stoning of Soraya M., The
55
Storm
65
Tetro
70
That Evening Sun
72
Thirst
xx
Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas 3D (re-release)
61
Trucker
xx
Turning Green
83
U2 3D![]()
66
Unmade Beds
66
Unmistaken Child
70
Visual Acoustics
55
Walt & El Grupo
67
Way We Get By, The
69
We Live in Public
64
Wedding Song, The
64
Where is Where?
xx
White on Rice
74
Woman in Berlin, A
69
World's Greatest Dad
70
Yes Men Fix the World
69
Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg
xx
You, the Living
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Proof

Generally favorable reviews
Based on 37 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 29 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
David Auburn (also play)
Rebecca Miller
Directed by: John Madden
Release Date:
Theatrical: September 16, 2005
DVD: February 14, 2006
Running Time: 100 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for some sexual content, language and drug references
Starring Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal, Gary Houston, and Anne Wittman
Proof is the compelling story of an enigmatic young woman haunted by her father's past and the shadow of her own future, exploring the links between genius and madness, the tender relationships between fathers and daughters and the nature of truth and family. (Miramax)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Captain Corelli's Mandolin Mrs. Brown Shakespeare in Love
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Film Threat Phil 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 >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
An extraordinary thriller... The film centers on two remarkable performances, by Gwyneth Paltrow and Hope Davis.
Read Full Review >Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
It's so fluid and cinematic that it's hard to even envision how the piece worked on stage.
Read Full Review >Time Richard 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 >ReelViews James 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 >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
Tasteful, thoughtful fare that entertains without ever speaking down to the audience.
Read Full Review >Variety David 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 >Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan
Against considerable odds and despite a shaky start, Proof proves itself in every area.
Read Full Review >Christian Science Monitor Peter 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 >USA Today Claudia Puig
Proof proves undeniably that the intimacy of a stage play can be re-created powerfully on screen.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Ken 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 >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie 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 >Boston Globe Ty 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 >Chicago Reader Jonathan 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 >The New Republic Stanley 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 >Washington Post Nelson Pressley
Paltrow is pretty commanding, even if Madden pushes things toward airlessness by keeping the camera so tight.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Melissa 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 >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
Gwyneth Paltrow is triumphant in this somewhat derivative and overly stage-bound film.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott 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 >Entertainment Weekly Owen 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 >Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow
You never believe that Paltrow's character is insane, even when she herself does. She has too sturdy a core.
Read Full Review >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 >New York Daily News Jami Bernard
Who knew a drama about numbers could be so thrilling?
Read Full Review >New York Post Kyle Smith
Proof will put a lot of viewers right back where they left off in 12th-grade calculus: asleep.
Read Full Review >Empire Anna 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 >Salon.com Stephanie 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 >Chicago Tribune Michael 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 >Premiere Glenn 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 >Rolling Stone Peter 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 >The New Yorker Anthony 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 >Village Voice Dennis Lim
John Madden's competent, monotonous film version, not exactly stagebound but hardly freewheeling, only underscores its mechanical nature.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe 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.
The New York Times Manohla Dargis
It's funny how movies about smart people often play so dumb.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 29 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
2 Roads gave it an8:
A must see story for those living in the metaphorical house of quandary while caretaking a loved one. "How many days have I lost? … I wonder if I will ever find my way out." The story gives substance to the inner conflict, loss of self and a proof that there is hope in the end.
Jeff M. gave it a6:
The movie, while well acted, suffers from an insurmountable problem: Gwyneth Paltrow's character is unbelievably annoying. I could not buy that Gyllenhaal was that interested in her, since I really looked forward to scenes without her in it, which are few and far between.
Sharon B. gave it an8:
Great job by Gwyneth Paltrow. Would like to know more about this complicated family.
Tony B. gave it a7:
This is a very intelligently written film that will unfortunately appeal mainly to a specific and rather small audience. It is well acted by Anthony Hopkins and by Jake Gylenhall, who is not miscast as some of the critics insist. The real acting honors, however, go to Gynneth Paltrow and Hope Davis, who, especially when they are in the same scenes, are just about perfect.
Jen gave it a7:
Generally well acted and directed, but kind of dull. Paltrow's a little over the top in parts and not terribly believable as a math genius.
Jenny E. gave it a9:
I enjoyed this film more than most films I watch. Paltrow and Davis shine in a very real sister relationship. There is enough mystery to keep you interested, and emotionally involved right to the end. The ending, while not totally satisfying, was realistic. I didn't want the story to end. Very well done by all invoved !
Heather W gave it a5:
This is one of those movies that makes me wish I'd waited for DVD. It wasn't "bad," but it wasn't "good" either. It was safe and tepid and predictable. Competent and not-bad acting, but nothing exciting or relevatory. I think I've decided that Paltrow really isn't that great an actor, although she's neither bad nor annoying. But that's hardly glowing praise. Anyway. Not an exceptional movie. Perhaps the play was better.
