Audience Reviews for The Professor and the Madman Feb 08, 2020 Inspired by a true story, The Professor and the Madman is a compelling historical drama. We’ll never know where Shemran’s movie truly lost its way, but its current form of saving face by sounding smart will make viewers want to simply move on from it, just like its star and director and have. Coming Soon. Ironically, for a movie about words, the dialogue only sparks to life on rare occasion. Best Netflix Shows and Series To Binge (January 2021), The 100 Best Movies on Netflix Right Now (January 2021), 100 Best Movies on Amazon Prime To Watch (January 2021). 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Prof. Murray and Dr. Minor finally meet at the hour-mark of the film, staring into each other's giddy eyes and exchanging book nerd gallantries on a bench. Directed by Farhad Safinia. As a co-writer and first time director, Farhad Safinia brought The Professor and the Madman to life while being a consummate professional and at great personal expense. The Professor and the Madman was released in 2019 and has generally received positive reviews. Sign in to vote. We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your email. |, October 29, 2020 Review by Cool Hand Max ★★★ The Professor and the Madman rises above its troubled production and certain prosaic elements to deliver a robust and worthy historical drama about the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary and the two pioneering minds behind it, (the Scot) James Murray and (the American) William Chester Minor. | Fresh (13) With the film now credited to director and co-writer P.B. And yet “The Professor and the Madman” suffers not just from dull self-seriousness but its general direction, especially as its third act feels to be stapled together by wordy, compassionate speeches that are supposed to be grandiose, but mean very little. Movie Review Mom GRADE: B IN A NUTSHELL: Words are powerful. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. In one of the movie’s few standout qualities, it does make the idea of a word seem alive—that a word can change throughout the years, and that slang is not an abomination but an evolution. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". Annoyingly, her pain is treated as what essentially drives him the most crazy, even though she’s the one with the dead husband and father to her hungry children. It’s less about the Dictionary or its importance than it is positing Professor Murray and Dr. Minor as underdogs—one fighting for his editing gig, the other in grave need of protection from progressively harmful rehabilitation techniques—and the story tries to sell us on cheap pity for the men's potential. Voltage Pictures, February 25, 2020 |, May 10, 2019 Just confirm how you got your ticket. Gibson is fine; it's everything else that doesn't work. The percentage of Approved Tomatometer Critics who have given this movie a positive review. The incredible true story that defined our world. Perhaps related, the dialogue is bad: “I have gone to the ends of the world on the wings of words,” Penn’s Dr. Minor remarks with a straight face and impressively scraggly beard, bungling the movie’s chance to make reading sound as transportive as it truly is. But while “The Professor and the Madman” might seem tailor-made for the two, it struggles to offer its own intellectual thrills as its story becomes about propping up the men, not so much the words. When you watch the film (it’s barely in theaters but on VOD, despite its silent release) it’s not the locations that are the problem, if one can even tell the difference. They won't be able to see your review if you only submit your rating. Inspired by a true story, The Professor and the Madman is a compelling historical drama. Instead it’s the presence of Gibson and his co-star Sean Penn, who give the project a stuffy sanctimoniousness, as it so transparently yearns to be the definition of “powerhouse acting.”. |, April 12, 2019 Those who still follow Gibson closely might be amused by his considerably gentler side, or his Scottish accent that tends too waver as he presents a man who is constantly beat (he's better as a gruff question mark in the recent "Dragged Across Concrete," if you were wondering). by simon winchester ‧ release date: sept. 4, 1998 The whole cast is superb, including Natalie Dormer and Eddie Marsan. We'll never know where Shemran's movie truly lost its way, but its current form of saving face by sounding smart will make viewers want to simply move on from it, just like its star and director and have. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. At the center of “The Professor and the Madman” is a hollow cinematic spectacle—intellect. [Full Review in Spanish], It is still a properly directed drama, obsessed with transmitting the redemptive capacity of the written word in its first stretch. But it's not quite worth a recommendation either. Please reference “Error Code 2121” when contacting customer service. | Rotten (19). 114 out of 123 found this helpful. Starring Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, and Natalie Dormer, the film has a good cast that delivers strong performances. Commercially, ‘The Professor and the Madman' will go down as a flop – cinematically, this movie is far better than ticket sales suggest. |, January 5, 2021 It’s nothing like seeing an actor actually play jazz piano, or beholding Jackie Chan as he turns downtown Los Angeles into a jungle gym. The film is a bombastic dirge verging on the preposterous. | Rating: 3/5 6,034 reviews The Professor and the Madman, masterfully researched and eloquently written, is an extraordinary tale of madness, genius, and the incredible obsessions of two remarkable men that led to the making of the Oxford English Dictionary -- … Get the freshest reviews, news, and more delivered right to your inbox! Sidney Poitier’s 7 Most Memorable Performances, All Harry Potter Movies Ranked Worst to Best by Tomatometer. Additionally, the script is able to take a rather dry subject and make it quite interesting and heightens the political intrigue. Don’t worry, it won’t take long. Dr. Minor is a godsend for Professor Murray’s project, and Professor Murray has given Dr. Minor a type of stability. The Professor and the Madman saw a theatrical run in a handful of offshore markets that began in March 2019 and has pulled in just $3.4M across numerous distributors that picked up the broken film. the professor and the madman a tale of murder, insanity, and the making of the oxford english dictionary. | Top Critics (6) Your AMC Ticket Confirmation# can be found in your order confirmation email. Safinia may as well have cited his screenplay as a sound reason to bury it, A poorly constructed epic. Gibson plays Professor James Murray, a self-taught man in numerous languages who joins the long-stewing Oxford English Dictionary project to become its unlikely editor. Isn't the unwatchable mess we expected it to be. The Professor and the Madman tells the story of an unexpected friendship between an Oxford academic and an American surgeon sentenced to Broadmoor and focused on how they helped each other. Enter Sean Penn as Madman, who we see in the beginning of the film kill a man in front of the now-widow, but is sentenced to an insane asylum because he killed the wrong man. Fastnet Films, | Rating: 2.5/5 and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango. Mel Gibson and Sean Penn are set to star in Professor and the Madman, a real-life drama about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary. For a film about the silken beauty of language, Gibson and his co-stars wade through clunky, chunky dialogue that solidifies in their throats as if swallowing lead. Dr. Minor also has the privilege of intellect, helping save an asylum guard’s life during a ghastly injury, and subsequently earning the right to have papers, books, easels and more in his cell. There goes Penn, again, screaming and trembling and pulsing the veins out of his neck, and when there’s a sequence in which Dr. Minor is haunted by two ghosts in his cell, one can imagine the actor’s elation. Then, it was published in the United States as The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary. We won’t be able to verify your ticket today, but it’s great to know for the future. This biopic is based on the book by Simon Winchester called The Surgeon of Crowthorne : A Tale of Murder, Madness and Love of Words Mel Gibson bought the film rights of the book back in 1999 and is finally bringing it to us on the Big Screen. By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy Defying the smug men around him who look down on his autodidact upbringing (and receiving some support from a peer played by Steve Coogan), Prof. Murray immerses himself in the project with the help of a few assistants, his work space surrounded by slips of paper related to the definition of a word. |, May 20, 2020 However, there are some parts of the plot that are hard to follow. The book reviewed here, Simon Winchester's _The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary_ tells an incredible story behind that simple entry of a man's name. and the Terms and Policies, | Rating: 2/5 Instead, words become a type of gobbledygook in this story, as two acting titans can flap their gums all they want about fancy words and their histories, but simply sounding smart is cheap in film. Gibson, who used to direct vulgar epics in ancient languages, gets to play a misunderstood genius; Penn, who often believes the best acting is often the noisiest, is given carte blanche to holler and suffer. John Boorman wrote a script and was at one time tapped to direct, as was Luc Besson. The Professor and the Madman is a remarkable story of history that deserves to be told and rewarded. But for Penn fans, whoever you are, this is a must, as he performs in the usual register of turning up the intensity to be taken seriously. |, August 15, 2020 Simon Winchester published The Surgeon of Crowthorne in 1998. Was this review helpful? Copyright © Fandango. history, Icon Entertainment International, The percentage of users who rated this 3.5 stars or higher. Mel Gibson optioned it. With Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Eddie Marsan, Natalie Dormer. It’s nothing like seeing an actor actually play jazz piano, or beholding Jackie Chan as he turns downtown Los Angeles into a jungle gym. Victorian London is depicted in gritty realism, yet still looks strangely appealing. The image is an example of a ticket confirmation email that AMC sent you when you purchased your ticket. Coming Soon. Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid-19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at … If only The Professor and the Madman as a whole matched the central performances, but it falls short on a number of levels. Please click the link below to receive your verification email. Mel Gibson and Sean Penn star in this creaky drama which was disowned by Gibson after endless problems and lawsuits during production – and if Mad Mel disowns a movie, then it’s got to be a mess. Coming Soon. The movie tells its modest story effectively enough, even if the inelegant performances of the two leads (particularly Penn and his love of a ranty tantrum) are of much help. Beautifully acted and shot, "The Professor And The Madman" illuminates both the joy of intellectual pursuit and the depth of human despair. drama, “The Professor and the Madman” then gets worse when it works toward its true intent, which is to vindicate these men, losing sight of its initial hunt for knowledge in the process. In our modern era, all too often we receive the message that as long as one is wealthy or famous (or better yet, both), it does not matter if one is blithely uneducated, vulgar and arrogant. Professor James Murray begins work compiling words for the first edition of the Oxford English Dictionary in the mid 19th century, and receives over 10,000 entries from a patient at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, Dr. William Minor. Cinemark The Professor and the Madman is an extraordinary tale of madness and genius, and the incredible obsessions of two men at the heart of the Oxford English Dictionary and literary history. It is stubbornly, frustratingly, the opposite of an actor able to share screen-time with their character (which he has the ability to do, like recently in Hulu’s series “The First”). Our Take: The Professor and the Madman is a wannabe prestige film featuring a very difficult-to-like star and a slightly less difficult-to-like star. Penn’s Dr. William Minor has a complicated history, an American who fought in the Civil War and is disturbed in particular by a deserter he had to brand (the man he thought he killed in the beginning). There are no approved quotes yet for this movie. |. You can see why these two actors were attracted to the project, as it gives them the roles they’ve been clawing for in other projects. A movie version of the book, starring Mel Gibson as Murray and Sean Penn as Minor and directed by Farhad Safinia under the pseudonym P. B. Shemran, was released in 2019 with the title The Professor and the Madman.The movie rights for the book were bought by Gibson's Icon Productions in 1998. Shemran, this is not even a fun fiasco, mixing some kinetic handheld camerawork and a handsome mid-2000s Oscar-ready period piece sheen with a plot direction that dulls its initial ambitions. In one case, the word “art” proves to be their biggest treasure hunt, with everyone trying to track its meaning through different centuries and languages. By opting to have your ticket verified for this movie, you are allowing us to check the email address associated with your Rotten Tomatoes account against an email address associated with a Fandango ticket purchase for the same movie. Meanwhile, Dr. Minor is tormented by the growing guilt of killing that husband and father, even when the widow (Natalie Dormer) inches closer and closer to forgiveness. Yet despite a few problems, The Professor and the Madman is a fascinating look at a unique friendship that produced something extraordinary. Murray is disliked by the old guard because the Scotsman is an outsider to the institution. Winchester's well-written book evolved into a mess of a movie. Don't have an account? | Rating: 3.5/5 Sign up here. |, February 19, 2020 |, June 12, 2020 Nick Allen is an Assistant Editor at RogerEbert.com and is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association. |, December 22, 2020 | Rating: 1.5/4 More reviews of The Professor and The Madman “The Professor and the Madman…is the linguistic detective story of the decade…. Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password. The Professor and the Madman limps out as a woefully half-baked and overcooked spectacle that mistakes reality for relevance. Regal There is a fascinating true story in here, of an unlikely collaboration, and an important book. |, May 11, 2019 You're almost there! Winchester does a superb job of historical research that should entice readers even more interested in deeds than words.”–William Safire, New York Times Magazine The Professor and the Madman is rated Not Rated by the MPAA . Find helpful customer reviews and review ratings for The Professor and the Madman at Amazon.com. Film Review: Mel Gibson in ‘The Professor and the Madman’ Mel Gibson’s problem-plagued project finally gets released with an invented director’s name and a minuscule chance of earning much money. Book Review: The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester The fascinating, appalling, sad tale of the lunatic American, John Minor, who became one of the most prolific contributors to the Oxford English Dictionary as it was being created by its learned Scottish editor, James Murray – while Minor dwelt in an asylum for murder. Violence: There are some war scenes shown in flashback.A man’s face is branded with a … Just below that it reads "Ticket Confirmation#:" followed by a 10-digit number. Film Review: Professor and the Madman. The Professor and the Madman Rating & Content Info Why is The Professor and the Madman rated Not Rated? We want to hear what you have to say but need to verify your account. |, May 25, 2019 When Oxford appoints Professor James Murray to head the university's project to create an English dictionary that chronicles every word in the English language he seeks help from the public and finds an unlikely friend and partner in an American doctor who's been committed to an asylum. The Professor and the Madman: A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary Simon Winchester, Author HarperCollins Publishers $23 (256p) ISBN 978-0-06-017596-2 … | Rating: 2/5 Mel Gibson, left, and Sean Penn in “The Professor and the Madman”. All Critics (32) Simon Winchester's book was a best-seller, but you'd never know why from watching this turgid adaptation, which gives you the gist of these events with all the insight and heft of a B-minus high-school book report. Coming Soon, Regal Taking the genuinely bizarre true story of the first Oxford dictionary editor and his friendship with an asylum patient who submitted 10,000 definition entries, the production fell apart (according to Deadline) because the financiers would not allow Safinia to shoot in Oxford, England, instead forcing them to use the apparently galling location of Trinity College in Dublin. All rights reserved. “The Professor and the Madman” is the latest fiasco in bad movie history—what was once a dream project for Mel Gibson (who acquired the rights way back in 1998), and meant to be the directorial debut for his “Apocalypto” co-writer Farhad Safinia, has now become a black eye for the two. 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