Proof that a Play can Successfully become a Film

The factorial world of mathematics is a universe composed of symbols and complexity. If such an individual exists with the inhuman gift to understand such complicated language, their life’s purpose is to manifest it. The unique play turned film Proof is the story of a young woman accepting her arithmetic genius after the death of her beloved father. David Auburn wrote the conceptually complex play in 2001 and director John Madden turned it into a Miramax film in 2005. As someone who read the play prior to watching the film my expectations were high.

I first approved of Anthony Hopkins playing Robert because the ghost of a delusional mathematician seemed a natural fit for him. I was originally skeptical of Gwyneth Paltrow playing the mentally and emotionally tormented Catherine, but she proved her award winning acting abilities. For Hollywood purposes I guess it only seemed profitable to have Jake Gyllenhaal play Catherine’s love interest, Hal or formally Harold Dobbs. But Hope Davis was a relevant fit for the obsessive compulsive elder daughter Claire.

Simultaneous with the play and movie, the main setting was Robert and Catherine’s antique and gloomy looking Chicago home, heavy with unfinished business. The play was meant for a single stage but thanks to the infinite possibilities that a movie can provide; the story to took the necessary next step into reality to relate to a general audience.

Any movie that is based off of a play there will be changes made for cinematography reasons. One example that I didn’t mind was Madden made Catherine a year older than and Hal to either make their relationship seem less creepy or maybe because Gwen looks older than Jake. Other changes were added to give Claire more of a relatable character in the film possibly to heighten the lack of sisterly love. Nevertheless the movie could be followed along with the play, which satisfied me.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film’s use of flashbacks. In Auburn’s play the scenes skip to reflect a flashback or forward in time, which settled my confusion while watching the movie. The story begins the night before Robert’s funeral, Catherine is speaking with the ghost of her father and addresses the haunting question of insanity: “A very good sign that you’re crazy is the inability to ask the question, ‘Am I crazy?’” (Auburn, 11).

The theme of madness, I felt was supposed to be omniscient. However in the film Madden added a funeral scene where it seemed that Cat was seeking revenge rather than mourning her loss. In the film she rushed up to the podium and gave a morbid eulogy about the last insufferable years of Robert’s sickly life, ending it with, “I’m glad he’s dead.” Her speech was rough going down, especially since her character was supposed to have genuinely loved her father.

But Madden did redeem himself with the funeral’s reception, where Hal and his band of geeks rocked the house. The movie interpretation of the three-minute song of silence called “i” that stood for the “imaginary number” was so emotionally moving that it truly embodied the power behind a moment of silence in Robert’s memory. I also found it interesting that Claire was drunkenly giggling throughout the song to reflect her lack of awareness for this scientific world and her lack of care that her father just died. With the crack of lighting and simultaneous flash of Robert’s figure before Catherine, was both reassuring and an intense way to end the scene. 

The legendary Anthony Hopkins gave the true performance by bringing his own mad genius to truly become Robert. The inspiration for such an acclaimed character is within his charming love and dedication for both math and his daughter Catherine: “I (Robert) don’t mean to embarrass you. It’s part of the reason we have children. We hope they’ll survive us, accomplish what we can’t” (Auburn, 62).  

I had preconceived notions about Gwyneth Paltrow playing Catherine. I was proved to be in the wrong since she gave the appropriate balance of natural beauty and brains to Cat’s character. I was similarly skeptical about hunky Jake Gyllenhaal as Robert’s long time student because he is simply too good looking to become a math geek. But the scene during the morning after the funeral where Hal boyishly admits to Cat on the steps of her house, “I’d like to spend as much time with you as I can unless of course I’m coming on way too strong right now and scaring you in which case I’ll begin backpedaling immediately…”(Auburn, 35). Jake gave Hal the handsome he needed to make this line not sound creepy.

The ending was the only true difference between the movie and the play where Madden’s more dramatic finish was uplifting. In the play Claire and Catherine have not left yet for the airport but the insinuation that they are going soon is obvious. However in the film there was an additional scene where Hal chases after their taxi and in a perfect Frisbee-like toss, sends her notebook into the cab window and perfectly onto Cat’s lap as they drive away. Because of this, afterward while Cat and Claire are in the airport discussing New York, Cat has a moment of realization where she unexpectedly takes off running back to face her fate and Hal.

From my female perspective, what truly hit home for me was in the last scene. Hal is casually walking through his campus with his friends and upon noticing Cat waiting for him; he stops walking as his friends carry on, with this cheerful look on his beautiful face. Ugh, how romantic?

The last scene in the play for the most part coincided with the movie, as it should. Catherine is initially shy toward Hal until she shows him her notebook that contained, “a mathematical theorem about prime numbers, something mathematicians have been trying to prove since…since there were mathematicians, basically. Most people thought it couldn’t be done” (Auburn, 40). Hal, knowing how deeply important the work is to the math world and Cat, humbling begins asking questions about the proof.

The movie added an additional voice over to conclude the last shot of Hal and Cat. As the shot paned out Catherine spoke in rhetorical questions of her powerful new acceptance of her genius, which I found gave rise to her character’s awakening: “I'm outside a house, trying to find my way in. But it is locked and the blinds are down, and I've lost the key, and I can't remember what the rooms look like or where I put anything. And if I dare go in inside, I wonder... will I ever be able to find my way out?”

Coming from someone who is genuinely right-brained and has little appreciation for math, I found this movie and play to be sensational. I appreciated the lack of over dramatization in the film because this story was not one to become a box office smash but it was one to be seen. The audience is required to have a certain level of intelligence to fully appreciate and comprehend such a complex story, but that is why the film had super stars like Anthony, Gwen and Jake. All in all I thought the play was successfully created into a film. And credit must be given where credit is due. Touché Hollywood, touché.