catherine ( gwyneth paltrow ) be the 27 year old daughter of a recently decease mathematician and play by anthony hopkins . catherine grief for her father who suffer from insanity before he die . now and she must confront the possibility that she may have inherit some of her father mental tendency . one of her father student and a young man name herald and as well a claire and catherine scheming sister and make catherine life even more difficult . it be at least a year since i have watch a film so annoy a proof . you would think that for a film wherein mathematics be a central focus of character life and there would be dialogue reference to differential equation and or convergent series and or double integral and or binomial expansion and or other math concept . nothing do . there some minimal babble about prime number . but the film go out of it way to avoid actual discussion of mathematics . instead and we have to endure emotional diatribe from catherine and and her ongoing malaise relate to herald and claire . which be itself a contradiction . a a mathematician herself and catherine response should be thoughtful and logical and not emotional . yet and her reaction be totally emotional and illogical . clearly and the filmmaker here consider viewer to be mathematical dummy . so they create a phony main character and to enhance verbal conflict and and in so do evade intellectual dialogue . on the dvd extra and the actor even seem proud that mathematics be not discuss . and that and in turn and make me have an even low opinion of them . throughout the film catherine whine and moan and sulk and and pout . i absolutely could not stand her . and gwyneth paltrow annoy nasal voice make her character almost unendurable . a much good movie could have be make if they have dump catherine and and zeroed in on the anthony hopkins character . watch him and and listen to him talk about the wonder and mystery of mathematics with herald and would have be far more interesting and rewarding .