Many of the very attributes that made David Auburn's Proof an award-winning stage play hamper it as a film.
Auburn wrote the screenplay with Rebecca Miller, herself a filmmaker, daughter of American literary giant Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis.
They've been faithful to the dialogue, but not the play's spirit.
Its flirtations with madness and genius seem much heavier and solemn on screen.
Gone is the eccentricities of the characters that made them endearing rather than strange.
Paltrow's performance is definitely powerful, but it doesn't demonstrate nearly enough of her range or screen charisma.
Paltrow is Catherine, a Chicago mathematician who has sacrificed her own career to care for her father Robert (Anthony Hopkins) one of the great mathematical geniuses of his generation.
Hopkins' performance looks phoned. It's little more than a brilliant technician digging around in his bag of tricks.
Jake Gyllenhaal as the the math student who thinks sex will shock Catherine out of her misguided devotion is more of a plot contrivance than a flesh-and-blood character.
(This film is rated PG)
