A brilliant mathematician, Robert Llewellyn (Anthony Hopkins), suffered mental problems and has recently died. His daughter Catherine (Gwyneth Paltrow) – also a genius with numbers – appears to suffer a similar condition. She has been caring for him in his troubled final years. After Robert’s death, Catherine’s controlling sister (Hope Davis) arrives from New York and tries to organise her. Meanwhile, Hal (Jake Gyllenhaal) is a former graduate student of Robert’s who wants to go through his papers and find out if he left anything else of worth.
All four characters are brilliantly drawn and portrayed. The dialogue is plausible.
The “troubled maths genius” trope recalls Ron Howard’s 2001 film A Beautiful Mind, but there’s strong enough acting and a compelling enough premise to make this well worth watching.
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