Proof (2005)

Madden stages the action with a minimum of imagination and gets a career-worst performance out of Davis in a key role, but the material still sputters to life on the strength of the writing and Paltrow's commitment to the part.

Sadly, the impact of the clever parallelogram of emotional and philosophical concerns in Auburn and Rebecca Miller's screenplay is deadened by the director's overly literal -- mechanical -- cinematic interpretation.

Madden does a competent job transferring the film from stage to screen.

Few movies regard the psyche with such sober discernment.

The result, like so many stout travellers from stage to screen, is respectable. Stolidly, bloodlessly, yawningly respectable.

Miscast yet marvelous, Paltrow and the rest of the cast hold you to the movie, even when you intuitively sense something is lacking.

Proof is a smart film, but it tries too hard. It wears its heart on its sleeve, and the pathos becomes a bit much because there is little to balance it out.

A limp, and utterly pointless melodrama that's never as intelligent as it thinks.

Timid staging faithful adaptation = no cinema

offers a convincing demonstration of the theorem that good writing and sensitive performances can equal an engaging and nuanced piece of cinema.

full review in Greek

As a story about personal and family dysfunction, and about coming to terms with life's uncertainties, Proof isn't bad.