Notes

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/proof.png]]

''Proof'' is a 1991 Australian romantic {{Dramedy}} written and directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse. The film stars Creator/HugoWeaving, Geneviève Picot and Creator/RussellCrowe.

The story concerns the day-to-day life of Martin, a [[OxymoronicBeing blind photographer]]. Through a series of flashbacks, Martin is shown as a child, distrustful of his own mother. She describes to him the garden outside his bedroom window. She tells him that someone is raking leaves, but he can't hear the sound and angrily decides she is lying to him. This childhood experience strongly affects Martin as an adult, as he anticipates that sighted people will take advantage of his blindness to lie to him, or worse yet, [[DontYouDarePityMe pity him]].

As a result Martin is a resentful, bitter man who spends his days taking photographs of the world around him, then having various people describe them. He uses these photographs and the Braille descriptions before he stamps on them as "proof" that the world around him really is as others describe it to him.

He also takes secret pleasure in rebuking the romantic advances of Celia, his housekeeper. Celia harbours a deep-seated and obsessive crush on Martin, and takes out her frustration at her [[AllLoveIsUnrequited unrequited love]] by tormenting Martin in small ways, such as rearranging the furniture in his house. Martin keeps Celia around because her love and hatred of him means he knows she can't pity him.

One day Martin encounters Andy, and is pleased with the depth and detail with which Andy describes his photos. The two fast become close friends, and Martin soon comes to trust him implicitly. The jealous Celia is threatened by Andy's increasing presence in Martin's life and begins to scheme against him...

!!The film contains proofs of the following tropes:
* AccidentalMurder: Of Ugly the cat, but still. Martin crashes a stack of crates over the poor animal while stumbling through the alley, killing it. [[spoiler: Or so it looks. The cat is actually still alive and when Andy tries to call out Martin for killing the cat, Martin quickly realises the animal is still alive, so they both take it to the vet]].
* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Celia's is, but she doesn't really mind ''that'' much. Martin is distant towards people, and the fact that their relationship is one hell of TheMasochismTango, means she never really gets any sort of reciprocation.
* BlackComedy: After a short stint of BlindDriving, Martin slams directly into the police cruiser trying to stop him, with Andy driving shotgun. When the officer angrily jumps to the driver's door, Martin instantly drops this bomb.
-->My eyes! I can't see!
-->[SmashCut to ER, since the police officer bought the lie]
* BrosBeforeHoes: Part of the reason why Celia feels jealous over Andy is feeling treated by Martin's attention and budging friendship with the man. [[spoiler: In the end, both Martin and Andy find out that they value their friendship more than any kind of interaction or relationship with Celia]].
* ClingyJealousGirl: Celia wants Martin just for herself. The second she realises Andy exists and Martin spends time with him, ignoring her even more, she starts plotting to get rid of him.
* TheConfidant: Andy becomes one to Martin, being a person Martin trusts without any issues, and thus being useful to describe Martin's photos.
* ConflictingLoyalty: Andy is torn between his friendship with Martin and the steady advances made by Celia towards him. Ultimately, he's forced to pick a side.
* DoesntTrustThoseGuys: Thanks to his mother and the complicated relationship with her, Martin distrusts women on principle. No misogyny, just a deeply ingrained distrust of females.
* DontYouDarePityMe: Martin is perfectly fine with the fact he's blind, thank you very much. His relationship with Celia is also built on this: if he can pity her, she can't pity him, and that's fine for Martin.
* DoubleEntendre: Celia is describing to Martin the reason why Bill, his dog, is going missing in the park - in reality, it's Celia sneaking there, calling Bill and watching in delight Martin's futile struggle to call his dog back, while being obsessed with Martin herself.
-->It's probably a bitch... you know, a bitch in heat.
* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: [[DefiedTrope Nope]], including being called out on this. Celia is portrayed as an abusive monster when she effectively blackmails Martin to first go on a date with her and then forces him to go to bed with her. Did we mention Martin is blind, which she further uses against him?
* DriveInTheater: Andy takes Martin to one to "describe" things on screen. They are watching a SlasherMovie.
* FreudianExcuse: Due to his assumption that his own mother was lying to him, Martin grew up to be ''incredibly'' distrustful towards people, and women in particular. His childhood experiences are also the reason why he's so self-restrained, as he was never properly explained ''why'' he shouldn't be touching people. His photographs exist as the titular proof that the things he experienced were real and that others saw them.
* HonestyAesop: Martin expects only one thing from people: the truth and only the truth. Andy quickly finds out that even a minor lie can complicate his life beyond any reason, and the conflict is brewing on the basis that Celia engineered for him to lie to Martin. Andy also bitterly learns that Celia seduced him without feeling ''anything'' towards him, for the sole purpose of destroying his and Martin's friendship. On the flip side, the story is also about Martin learning how impractical his demand is.
-->'''Martin:''' I'm a blind man. I'm not like other people. You can't know how important truth is to me.
-->'''Andy:''' I do know. Shit, Martin, everybody lies. But not all the time, and that's the point.
* HyperAwareness: Realistic variant with a man who was born blind and spent his entire life relying on other senses. Martin even discusses this with Andy, pointing out all the tiny details of the vet's waiting room or the fact how he operates in day-to-day life, using various cues (including even warmth of the sun rays) to navigate around.
* InternalReveal: Viewers know beforehand that Andy got tricked by Celia into lying to Martin and then about their budding romance, but Martin only learns much later on.
* InsidiousRumorMill: The ''second'' Celia learns about Andy's existence, she starts to manipulate both Martin and Andy to create a rift between them while also tricking Andy to lie to Martin, fully aware of Martin's trust issues.
* KeepingSecretsSucks: After Celia makes Andy lie about the content of a photo, he quickly finds out that maintaining that lie sucks... while she drags him deeper and deeper into lying to Martin.
* LiarRevealed: An elaborate, engineered case. First, Celia makes sure that there is an uncomfortable photo for Andy to describe, and once it's "mislabeled" by Martin, she makes sure that photo reaches a third party (Martin's veterinarian) to be properly described to Martin and thus destroy his trust in Andy. By the time Martin comes home, obviously furious, she has intentionally had Andy visit her and have sex with her, adding another lie to the list of Andy's fault.
* LoveMartyr: Celia's relationship with and to Martin is built on the fact she actually ''[[fetish enjoys]]'' being constantly rebuked.
* LoveTriangle: ZigZagged. [[spoiler: Celia seduces Andy, but not out of love or any actual feelings towards him. Instead, she wants to get him into as much trouble as possible to destroy the friendship between Andy and Martin. Martin, meanwhile, has a [[BelligerentSexualTension very messy]] relationship with Celia. He and Andy quickly become HeterosexualLifePartners. Andy, on his part, gets {{Honey Trap}}ped by Celia, but his feelings towards her are genuine, just like his friendship with Martin]].
* LyingToProtectYourFeelings: The reason why Andy lied in the first place was to prevent Martin from finding out Celia was deliberately tormenting him. Of course, he has [[HoneyTrap personal stakes to it]], too, but whenever the subject comes up later on, Andy consistently says that he did it so Martin won't feel bad.
* AManIsAlwaysEager: Celia exploits the fact that Andy is a rather simple guy and starts to seduce him right from their first meeting.
* TheMasochismTango: The Martin-Celia relationship. She is clearly and obviously in love with him - except that she is also possessive, clingy and obsessive. He takes pleasure in the fact that he can ''deny'' her any kind of affection and be as independent from her as feasible, yet he keeps her as his housekeeper.
* MyBelovedSmother: Played with. Martin's mother wasn't evil or overbearing, but she did struggle with raising a blind child, and ''he'' perceived her as incredibly controlling and, much worse for him, untrustworthy and lying just to make him feel better.
* NotSoDifferentRemark: Celia, when trying to get Martin at ease with her, brings up that they are both lonely and both are motherless and that obviously makes them not so different, him and her. Of course, she is the only one to see it that way.
* NotWhatItLooksLike:
** [[spoiler: Ugly the cat is fine. And no, Martin isn't trying to troll Andy or guilt-trip him to get him to the vet despite how the cat looks like - the vet manages to get it up and going]].
** When left alone for a bit in a DriveInTheater, Martin gets bored and starts rummaging through Andy's car, while also "looking" directly in front of him. The guy in the next car thinks Martin is just staring directly into his car and his girlfriend. ''Then'' Martin picks up an entire leaf of condoms, trying to figure out what they are by touch, all in the view of the guy from the next car, who takes him for a pervert. Things escalate from there.
** In the end, Martin [[spoiler: shows up in the kitchen to say sorry to Celia and apologise to her for everything, smiling. She's pleasantly surprised, thinking she finally got everything she wanted... and then he just as happily fires her, finally finding courage to do so]].
* OddFriendship: A fiercely independent blind man and a street-smart working-class no-gooder.
* TheOnlyOneITrust: Andy very quickly becomes the only person Martin truly trusts, as a result of him being an impartial outsider and a very straightforward and direct person by character.
-->'''Martin:''' I just took a photo, because you told me there is a leaf there.
-->[As the scene ends, Martin leans and reaches for the leaf, presenting it to Andy instead of saying anything]
* OperationJealousy: Why Celia starts to seduce Andy - she knows she will destroy the trust between him and Martin and thus get rid of him, getting Martin's full attention back.
* ThePromise: Martin makes Andy promise him that he will never, ''ever'' lie to him, especially not when describing his photos. Keeping this promise becomes far more problematic for Andy than he ever anticipated.
* TheReasonISuckSpeech: After having sex with Celia, Andy comes to Martin while he's walking Bill in the park and has a conversation with his friend, explaining that he's a no-gooder who isn't exactly the best person and listing all his various faults and deficiencies. Martin makes it clear to Andy that he really doesn't care because [[DramaticIrony he can trust him without any issue]].
* RegretfulTraitor: Andy feels like shit over betraying Martin's trust. Celia fully anticipated this - if not Martin will get mad at Andy, then Andy's own conscience will make him leave.
* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Martin's mother wasn't lying - there was a man raking leaves by the birdbath. We only learn in the very finale, when Andy describes the photo closely to the way Martin's mother described the garden to him when he was a child]].
* RoomFullOfCrazy: After blackmailing Martin to come on a date with her, Celia eventually sits Martin in her living room. The camera pans out to show Martin, and the entire wall behind him is covered in dozens of his photos. Martin, being blind, never learns about this. [[spoiler: Much later, Andy ends up in this room and is both terrified and confused by what he sees, but that's also the moment he realises he was played the whole time by Celia]].
-->'''Celia''': I'm a bit of a photographer myself.
-->'''Martin''': Really? What do you photograph?
-->[The camera switches to show all the photos of Martin around him]
-->'''Celia''': Things I love.
* SimpleMindedWisdom: What Martin likes about Andy - he might be BookDumb, but he's still very perceptive, expressive and direct with his opinions, which is exactly the sort of qualities Andy is looking for to describe his photos.
* SingleTargetSexuality: Celia wants Martin, [[GreenEyedMonster all for herself]], and isn't interested in anyone else.
* SuddenlyShouting: After finding out that Celia and Andy are together - and right after finding out that Andy lied to him about the photo's content - Martin tells them both to leave his house when finding them in the middle of a thryst.
-->'''Martin:''' Get out, both of you...
-->[Andy stands still, stupified and unsure of what to do]
-->'''Martin:''' How many times do I have to tell you? GET OUT!
* TitleDrop: Martin and Andy have an entire conversation over the titular concept of proof and Martin's photos.
-->'''Andy:''' What're you doing?
-->'''Martin:''' I'm labelling it.
-->'''Andy:''' Why?
-->'''Martin:''' Proof.
-->'''Andy:''' Of what?
-->'''Martin:''' That's what's in the photograph was really there.
-->[...]
-->'''Martin:''' But this [He holds out a photo] is proof that what I sensed is what you saw through your eyes. The truth.
* ToyotaTripwire: Martin does this accidentally to Andy, while Andy is in a middle of a brawl.
* TreacheryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: This might be Martin's life creed. He's incredibly distrusting due to being blind and demands from people nothing but the purest honesty. He throws Andy out after finding out he lied to him about the photo content. For him, lying is the worst thing a person can do to him, especially when [[DontYouDarePityMe out of pity]].
-->I'm a blind man. I'm not like other people. You can't know how important the truth is to me.
* {{Troll}}:
** This is easily the most defining trait of Celia. In her EstablishingCharacterMoment, she deliberately puts objects in places for Martin to trip over (since he's blind, it's a big deal for stuff to be in fixed positions). She later trolls Any by "stealing" the attention of Bill the dog in the park, right when Andy was sure he's going to be LickedByTheDog.
** Martin himself gets the attention of a waitress by deliberately pouring himself half a bottle of wine on the table, raising the bottle way too high and missing the glass on purpose, only stopping when she's by his table. He instantly gives his order before she can say or do anything. To drive point home, he later expertly pours himself and Andy a glass of port, explaining to his friend how he does it without ever overfilling.
* UnwittingPawn: Celia starts to seduce Andy right off the bat, for the purpose of ''driving him away'' from Martin. Martin suffers a great deal of distress as a result, while Andy only finds out he was played once Celia achieves her goal, making him leave her in disgust.
* TheVamp: Celia seduces Andy just to get back on Martin and destroy their friendship.
* WasItAllALie: Martin thinks his mother lied to him to make him feel better and "because she can", making him question not only the world she describes to him, but even the presence of other people and objects.

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YMMV:
* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: The entire soundtrack by Not Drowning, Waving. It is specifically written for each scene and moment, so the music always matches what's happening on screen, right down to fade-outs in the middle of a track.
* JerkassWoobie: Celia is a possessive, pretty nasty person who tricks, blackmails and manipulates people for her own goals, but Martin ''does'' mistreat her and from what we learn about her, her life wasn't exactly rosy. So while there are no excuses for what she does, it's still possible to sympathise with her.
* SignatureScene: The brief scene when Celia seduces Andy and gets him to go to bed with her. The camera is in close-up on Celia's face and her closed eyes when suddenly a shadow covers her face - implied to be Andy leaning towards her - and she opens her eyes, making a sly smile. All while the music changes to almost sinister. It's less than five seconds, but it's easily ''the'' most recognisable and memorable bit from the movie.
-->'''Celia:''' Let's pretend we're blind people.
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