'Proof' in Paltrow's Beautiful Mind

Sept. 23, 2005 — -- They say you can't rush genius, and that might be a polite way to explain why it's taken so long for the big-screen version of "Proof" to reach theaters. But the actors who portray a family of brainiacs in this new movie aren't playing dumb.

Gwyneth Paltrow reprises her role from David Auburn's Pulitzer Prize-winning play about a mentally ill mathematician and the daughter that puts aside her once-promising academic career to care for him, only to worry that she's inherited his insanity.

Shooting for "Proof" began in late 2003, and it was supposed to hit theaters late last year, when studios roll out most of their Oscar hopefuls. Then, the project was put on hold -- a move that almost automatically triggers speculation that it's become Hollywood's next disaster waiting to happen.

Paltrow, however, hasn't lost faith, and the 32-year-old Oscar winner isn't known to automatically shift into rah-rah mode to ballyhoo all her films.

"It's a very beautiful piece that explores mental illness and complications between people," Paltrow says. "But it's a very uplifting kind of triumphant story in the end … It's not a somber piece at all.'"

As director John Madden now explains, "Proof" got shelved last year when Miramax began heavily promoting "The Aviator" and "Finding Neverland" for Academy Awards.

With studio heads Bob and Harvey Weinstein leaving Miramax, it raised a little more uncertainty, Madden said, but he's tried to stay positive.

"From my point of view, it was kind of bonus," Madden told Reuters of the delay. "It was frustrating for a moment, but to be honest it never really found a home at the end of last year. We didn't finish until late October, which was too late for it to be in festivals, and I think that would have helped the movie."

Already, "Proof" is generating good buzz. The film was nominated for a Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival this summer, and followed that up with several promising reviews at Toronto's fest, with some saying Paltrow is in line for a second Academy Award nomination.

The film opened last Friday to packed houses in New York and Los Angeles, and will finally be released nationwide next week.

Anthony Hopkins plays Paltrow's father, a world-famous theorist reduced to wandering outside in his bathrobe and scrawling gibberish in his once-legendary notebooks. Worse yet, he knows he's going mad, and Paltrow's character believes she's previewing her own fate.

"Just because I went buggers, doesn't mean you will," Hopkins tells her in one of his lucid moments. "This stuff is not strictly hereditary, they know that now. Listen to me, you're going to be OK."

But can she believe a man who admits he's crazy, when he says she's not going crazy?