Watched a few movies this weekend. Proof, starring Anthony Hopkins and Gwyneth Paltrow, adapted from the stage play Paltrow starred in over in England. Hopkins is a brilliant mathematician who suffered from schizophrenia in his twenties, with occasional lucid periods thereafter. Paltrow is his younger daughter, the one who falls heir to his legacy of math acumen and perhaps of mental illness. It’s a gripping story, though the performances suffer a bit from stage-play-itis in that the dialog is wordy and the delivery is stage-ish. Hope Davis is very good as the self-absorbed older sister you love to hate and Jake Gyllenhaal performs well as the love interest. The title refers to a mathematical proof, but to other kinds of proof as well.
Off the Map starring Joan Allen and Sam Elliott, about a family that lives in rural New Mexico. An IRS auditor shows up find out why they haven’t filed any taxes in years (their income is less than $5000 a year!) and ends up staying. It’s an fun, quirky film (Elliott’s character is deep in a quagmire of depression and Allen’s character gardens in the nude), partly coming of age. Amy Brenneman (Judging Amy) is the little girl all grown up, and offers the requisite voice-over. J.K. Simmons (from The Closer) plays a “simple” family friend. The 11-year-old girl is as precocious as hell.
Broken Flowers starring Bill Murray as a financially well-off, aging Don Juan named Don Johnston (which leads to all sorts of double takes and “no, Johnston, with a ‘t’ dialog). As the film opens, his current girlfriend (I’m like your mistress, and you’re not even married) is breaking up with him just as he receives an unsigned pink letter from an old flame claiming that 20 years ago he fathered a child and this son might be looking for him. His Ethiopian next door neighbor is a mystery buff and insists that Murray’s character make a list of potential women and then go on the road to visit them all to find out who’s behind it. Sharon Stone and Jessica Lange are two of his old flames. Stone’s character has a teenage daughter named (significantly) “Lolita.” They’re all wacky in one way or another, and some are happier to see him than others. It’s one of those unresolved tales, but Murray is a lot of fun when he’s being (more-or-less) serious. The Ethiopian jazz soundtrack is entrancing and engaging.