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Picture
The true story of the beginning of the Oxford English Dictionary, led by Dr. James Murray and assisted by a convicted murderer seeking redemption.
BIOPIC/DRAMA

The Professor
and ​the Madman
 
(2019)

Directed by Farhad Safinia

Written by Todd Komarnicki and Farhad Safinia

Starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer,
Eddie Marsan, Stephen Dillane, Jennifer Ehle,
​Steve Coogan, Ioan Gruffudd, Laurence Fox

Based on the book The Professor and the Madman:
A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford
English Dictionary 
by Simon Winchester

Connor Eyzaguirre
June 1, 2021
7/10
The Professor and the Madman is a movie about the creation of the dictionary, an unlikely friendship, a killer's redemption, a mother coming to peace with her husband's murder, an ambitious doctor, and a bunch of scheming lords trying to keep an uneducated Scotsman out of their inner circle. In short, there's too much here to keep track of, and it's hard to get invested when you don't know which story you're supposed to care more about. Aside from two fantastic performances from Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, this film is really rather dull. I don't think we needed a movie about the team that started the Oxford English Dictionary.

Dr. James Murray (Gibson) is a self-taught language expert who is hired by Oxford to compile a definitive English dictionary that will contain every word that has ever existed in English. It's a monumental feat that everyone has deemed impossible. In reality, it took 28 years to finish this book and it was done long after Murray had died. But in the beginning, Murray was assisted by mail by a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, an American murderer named Dr. William Minor (Penn). Minor was a schizophrenic who killed a man he mistook for someone else. Minor used the impending dictionary as a way to feel useful, calm his nerves, and earn redemption. The friendship that grew between Murray and Minor is the heart of the movie, but everything else takes a backseat to it.

The Professor and the Madman is blatant Oscar bait that didn't make the cut, and there's nothing wrong with that. But it's not quite sure what story it wants to tell, mostly because the story of the dictionary just isn't that interesting, at least not enough for a biopic. It's the performances that hold this one up.

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  • Home
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