PROOF Movie Review

Jocelyn Moorehouse's directorial debut is a quietly engaging tale of manipulation, friendship, and erotic obsession between a young blind man named Martin (Hugo Weaving), his housekeeper (Genevieve Picot), and the young man he befriends (Russell Crowe). Martin, mistrustful since his youth of those around him, takes photographs of his environment (labelled in braille) as an attempt to prove that others are being honest with him. A chance meeting with Andy provides Martin with descriptive “eyes,” offering the opportunity to expand his world and his sensual connection with it—something his housekeeper, Celia, would be only too happy to help him with. This satisfyingly perverse, darkly witty, nasty little movie proceeds further than you think it will, ultimately inspiring the three corners of the story's erotically charged triangle to reevaluate their lives, behavior, and motives. This is a crisp and assured examination of the borders between curiosity and voyeurism, loneliness and desperation, proof and paranoia. A sophisticated, pleasingly creepy, overlooked gem.

NEXT STOP … Rear Window, Love Serenade, House of Games

1991 (R) 90m/C AU Hugo Weaving, Genevieve Picot, Russell Crowe, Heather Mitchell, Jeffrey Walker, Frank Gallacher; D: Jocelyn Moorhouse; W: Jocelyn Moorhouse. Australian Film Institute ‘91: Best Actor (Weaving), Best Director (Moorhouse), Best Film, Best Film Editing, Best Screenplay, Best Supporting Actor (Crowe). VHS, LV, Closed Caption NLC, COL