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Remember Mel Gibson’s big-gray-crazy-beard period from a few years back? That was for his role in The Professor and the Madman, a period drama about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, which is now on Netflix after a lengthy and tortured journey into being. It began filming in late 2016, was mired in lawsuits for nearly two years — then a producer, Gibson sued for more creative control and eventually washed his hands of the project — before it finally debuted in 2019 with minimal fanfare. The film is notable for being Sean Penn’s only major film role of the last five years, upping the curiosity factor. Now, let’s see if watching Penn and Gibson flex their thespian muscles is worth two hours of your time.
THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?
The Gist: London, 1872. Dr. William Chester Minor (Penn) chases a man on a cobblestone street, pulls out his revolver and shoots him dead in front of his wife and six children. To the shock of widow Eliza Merrett (Natalie Dormer), Minor is found not guilty during his trial due to insanity, and he’s sent to an asylum for the criminally insane. The man he killed was wholly innocent — Minor suffers from delusions and hallucinations, and believed Eliza’s husband was after him. Minor is an American, a Civil War veteran who experiences flashbacks, and we get to see one of them, when he coldly had a man’s face branded with a “D” for being a deserter.
Meanwhile, in Oxford, big time word nerd James Murray (Gibson) is hired to write and edit the dictionary, a dream gig for him, but probably not for you or me. It’s a big deal, because he has no fancy degrees and is an autodidact, n., one who is self-taught, which he tells his interviewers in exactly those terms, and they’re like, yeah, we know what that means, smart guy. As these things go, the job requires Murray to skip Christmas and whatnot as his wife, Ada (Jennifer Ehle), and kids pine for papa. But what else are you gonna do when you’re trying to document every English word ever written? Murray’s ingenious idea is to crowdsource the dictionary — he puts out a call for all citizens to contribute with definitions and sources, and soon enough, he’s getting envelopes in the mail.
Back on the asylum grounds, Minor uses his wartime field skills to save a man after a spiked gate falls on his leg. The selfless endeavor earns Minor some leniency and kindness by Dr. Brayn (Stephen Dillane) and handler Mr. Muncie (Eddie Marsan), who give him access to books and art supplies. He hears of the dictionary project, and throws himself into it obsessively, finding it therapeutic. As Murray and his pals (played by Ioan Gruffudd and Steve Coogan) struggle to unearth the etymology of “approve” and “art,” thick envelopes begin arriving in the post. Minor is saving their arses, because it’s taking them months to get through the first damn letter in the alphabet, with 25 more to go.
Murray visits Minor and forges a friendship. Minor asks the state to funnel his pension to Eliza Merrett as a form of reparation. “When I read, no one is after me,” Minor says, but he still maintains only a tenuous grip on reality. He’s as fragile as Murray’s status is with the Oxford uppity-ups, who don’t trust his ability to follow through on the project — and are the type of narrow-minded nose-looker-downers who wouldn’t take kindly to a lunatic murderer contributing so heavily to their giganto-tome, if they knew about it. And they probably will find out eventually.
Photo: Everett Collection
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I caught a few Mary Reilly and The Elephant Man vibes here.
Performance Worth Watching: I’m not saying Gibson was overlooked for an Oscar or anything, but this is clearly his least creepy and menacing, most relatable performance since Signs. He dusts off his Braveheart brogue and gives his character a winning earnestness that we maybe didn’t think he was capable of in a post-Passion of the Christ world.
Memorable Dialogue: “HAM! Mr. Muncie. I find that a good warm ham is often better for fighting the cold than any number of blankets or coals on the fire. Especially at this time of year.” — Minor speaks literally of Christmas dinner, and also metaphorically about Penn’s performance
Sex and Skin: None. Victorian era.
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 hobbles and howls and froths, his capital-A Acting wringing every driplet of capital-A Anguish out of his character. The film never really clarifies what type of work these men are doing — ferreting out every word that ever existed by reading every book that ever existed? Do they ever read an entire book and not find a single new word and go, “Ah shit”? What about the dirty books? They probably skipped some of the dirty ones — this is ENGLAND! Anyway, the plot gets choppy and murky in the third act, as it forces a couple far-fetched developments, and Minor’s mental state spirals downward, although we’re not entirely sure what happens to him. Is he OK? He doesn’t seem OK. But then after that he seems OK? And then we kind of figure out why Gibson and director Farhad Safinia (credited as P.B. Shemran) distanced themselves from the film.
And yet, despite a smallish bevy of issues, the movie ain’t half bad. It’s as visually lush as any other period film, with a nicely convincing and detailed display of costumes, set dressing and Very Nineteenth Century Beards. It also crystallizes a compelling subtextual strain in the moral quandary Minor presents — he committed murder and is clearly mentally ill, which tests the widow Merrett’s ability to forgive, after she initially turns down his monetary compensation out of disgust. Is the man at fault, or is it the sickness? Is rehabilitation feasible, or is he beyond hope? How would a bunch of Oxford wankers feel about a filthy American chained-up lunatic contributing to their very very very important book? Not great.
Disappointingly, we never get a true sense of the pressure Murray feels from his employers, who murmur and grumble about being “at war” with other countries in a quest to catalog languages. Must have something to do with the British empire and colonialism and pride and other such White Guy fiddle-faddle. The dictionary arms race is just not bloody enough to deserve much screen time, I guess. There’s a decent amount of entertainment value in Gibson and Penn’s performances, tortured as the latter’s may be; I wonder if one of the words Minor sussed out for his buddy was “acting,” and I wonder if he capital-A’d it. OK, maybe the movie ain’t quite half good, either. At least Mel doesn’t play the character with the forgiveness arc.
Our Call: SKIP IT. The Professor and the Madman isn’t the unwatchable mess we expected it to be. I wasn’t bored. But it’s not quite worth a recommendation either.
John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com or follow him on Twitter: @johnserba.
Is The Professor and the Madman worth watching?
The Professor and the Madman Reviews Isn't the unwatchable mess we expected it to be. But it's not quite worth a recommendation either. 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.
Why did Mel Gibson disown The Professor and the Madman?
Gibson and Safinia believed that key scenes needed to be shot in Oxford, England instead of Trinity College in Dublin. Voltage and Chartier resisted, arguing the movie was already over budget and behind schedule. Voltage claimed Gibson and Safinia walked off the movie when the Oxford locations were not permitted.
Is The Professor and the Madman historically accurate?
"The Professor and the Madman" is a film adaptation of the book "The Surgeon of Crowthorne" by Simon Winchester. While the movie takes creative liberties for dramatic effect, it is loosely based on historical events.
What did the madman do to himself in The Professor and the Madman?
The reality was that Minor, who thought he was being transported at night from the asylum, castrated himself in an attempt to stop himself from committing lewd acts on children all around the world. Minor begins his life in chains in England.
