Many moviegoing folks, as well as the many film critics out there, have waxed melancholic about the lack of originality in modern filmmaking. Indeed, it’s easy to imagine a passionate period project drawing considerable buzz and anticipation. The added fact that the stars are Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, two of Hollywood’s most notorious bad boys (sporting epic beards), is just the icing on the anticipatory cake.
“The Professor and the Madman” is about as unique as any film in recent memory. It tells of the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary.
The film opens in 1872, where William Chester Minor (Sean Penn) is in the throes of his undiagnosed schizophrenia. His mind is wracked with fits of paranoid delusions as he traverses the streets of London; apparently he believes that someone is out to assassinate him. In the course of his travels, he shoots and kills an innocent man who is out on a stroll with his wife, Eliza Merrett (Natalie Dormer, “The Tudors”).
Soon after committing the crime, the troubled American is captured by the local authorities and sent to the Broadmoor Hospital’s lunatic asylum. There, he proves to be a fascinating case for Dr. Richard Brayne (Stephen Dillane, “Spy Games,” “Game of Thrones”).
Brayne discovers that Minor is no ordinary murderer, but rather a brilliant physician who is experiencing what today we would call bouts of extreme PTSD, due to his service in the American Civil War.
Meanwhile, an unusually gifted autodidact and linguist, James Murray (Mel Gibson), is on a mission to create the first-ever Oxford English Dictionary. Murray has recently moved his wife, Ada (Jennifer Ehle, “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Little Men”), to Oxford in order to accomplish this massive task, which he estimates could take anywhere from five to seven years to complete.
But when his assistants begin to fall behind in their work on the monumental task of assembling an entire dictionary from scratch, a general call is put out for contributors to mail-in word origins, and their definitions. That is when Minor begins to inundate Murray and his crew with thousands upon thousands of valuable entries, which help to develop the dictionary considerably.
Murray, a good-natured man, decides to thank his greatest contributor personally and so travels to see Minor, not knowing the doctor has been locked away in a mental institution for years. Regardless of this missed fact, Murray and Minor strike up an unexpected friendship that forms the backbone of the film.
From there, the two fascinating characters embark on an epistolary relationship that drives the dictionary project forward.
By comparison, a subplot involving Minor’s guilt over the impoverished widow of the man he murdered and his attempts to help her never sparks much in the way of emotional relevance.
The Film’s Quality
Actors Gibson and Penn are in fine form here and keenly dramatize an unlikely partnership based on perseverance and a love of words and language.Penn falls into his role as Minor in a convincing manner. We really get to see a window into mental illness as his character deals with graphic flashbacks that detail the horrors of war. Several memorable scenes involve his connection with a guard at the mental facility. Muncie (Eddie Marsan, “Deadpool 2,” “Whiteboy Rick”) eventually discovers Minor’s capacity for compassion.
Meanwhile, Gibson completely disappears into his portrayal as Murray, a brilliant man obsessed with the most important project of his life. Indeed, as the character disappears into his work, conflicts arise with his wife, Ada. But as the project takes him over and consumes all of his time, she eventually lets James go and has to raise their children, for the most part, on her own.
Overall, the production looks good and seems to be a sincere dramatization of an important period in language history. However, there are tonal missteps here and there and a subtle lack of overall continuity.
Behind the Scenes
Gibson almost stopped “The Professor and the Madman” from being released at all. The famous Aussie star, under his Icon Productions banner, had been in a protracted legal squabble (until just recently) with Voltage over such things as where the film scenes were to be shot.While Gibson and Safinia wanted to lend authenticity to the production by filming in Oxford, Voltage apparently decided that it was over budget as it was, and wanted to shoot in more fiscal-friendly locations around Trinity College in Dublin.
For many people, the legal battles just made them want to see the film that much more. Part of the allure of watching the final product was to see if it actually came together.
In that regard, while “The Professor and the Madman” may have a few tonal hick-ups, overall, it’s an important film that is both educational and well-crafted.
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