Take One: Review of Proof [1991]
Review By Heather Arneson
If you are in the dark about quirky independent-minded dramas and want to feel less insecure about it, check out Proof, starring Hugo Weaving (of Matrix and Lord of the Rings fame). He plays a blind intellectual who will guide your way to freedom of feeling how it is to watch one, and even has him playing with a camera, which is art in and of itself. I will never say I loved a movie or hated it, as I want to remain neutral no matter what, like a mother who doesn’t want to say she has a favorite kid. However, I will say it was nice not to worry about hovering my eyes over the subtitles too much, as it was more of an Aussie cast and full of some piss and vinegar humor, but not as hard to understand like a robust British accent, which adjoins the balls of some Guy Ritchie films and the like.
Martin, the main character, is likable, though a little peevish about females from being henpecked by a spider who seems more like a jilted wife than caregiver, played by Genevieve Picot. Her character has the hots for him, and wishes to ensnare him in her web, never holding back her slutitude, even in the face of his sassitude. And he has plenty of it, but it is backed up with a depth you may be surprised to see in a movie who has a scene where the antagonist holds up condoms for another patron during a drive-in movie; purely by chance, not pleasure, mind you. Crazy enough, Crowe-about-Russell (also known as Russell Crowe from Gladiator), is a young buck who calls himself a “black sheep” and doesn’t recognize a spider when he sees it. Not only blind to who he is as a human animal, he can’t see past his lust for the venomous vixen and doesn’t know how to control his own guiding light. So sayeth metaphoricalisms in this magical buddy tale. Happy Ending? All I can let you know is, surprises all-around, and listen as much as you watch.
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