![]() ![]() Murray has been drafted to take over the editorship of the flailing Oxford English Dictionary, a task which has proved an impossible feat for the previous editors. ![]() While the film has triumphant moments, particularly in the powerful performances of its two leads, Mel Gibson and Sean Penn, the viewer is left waiting for the premise to transform into more than merely an empty stage for its leads, and to deal with the complexity and ephemeral nature of the English language.īased on the 1998 Simon Winchester novel of the same name and directed by Farhad Safinia, the film introduces the dual character narratives of James Murray (Mel Gibson), a brilliant and enigmatic Scottish polylingual, and William Chester Minor (Sean Penn), a paranoid former doctor of the American civil war. Unfortunately, in a production marred by chaos, lawsuits and general disfunction, The Professor and the Madman is a film left feeling hollow and unfinished. In a constantly changing linguistic and cultural landscape Mel Gibson’s passion project based on the unique history of the Oxford English Dictionary, should have had no trouble capturing the modern zeitgeist. ![]()
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