The Professor and the Madman (2019)

★ 7.1 2h 4m 1,274 votes IMDb

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.

The Professor and the Madman

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Cast

Mel Gibson
Mel Gibson as James Murray Age 70 · Peekskill, New York, USA Mel Columcille Gerard Gibson (born January 3, 1956) is an actor, film director, producer and screenwriter. Born in Peekskill, New York, Gibson moved with his parents to Sydney, Australia when he was 1...
Sean Penn
Sean Penn as Dr. William Chester Minor Age 65 · Santa Monica, California, USA Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and filmmaker. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. His accolades include three Academy Awards, a Golden Globe Award, and...
Natalie Dormer
Natalie Dormer as Eliza Merrett Age 44 · Reading, Berkshire, England, UK Natalie Dormer (born 11 February 1982) is an English actress, best known for her roles as Anne Boleyn in the Showtime series The Tudors and as Margaery Tyrell in the HBO series Game of Thrones. Dor...
Eddie Marsan
Eddie Marsan as Muncie Age 57 · Stepney, East London, England, UK Edward Maurice Charles Marsan OBE (born 9 June 1968) is an English actor. He won the London Film Critics Circle Award and the National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Supporting Actor for the f...
Jennifer Ehle
Jennifer Ehle as Ada Murray Age 56 · Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA Jennifer Ehle (born December 29, 1969) is an Anglo-American actress. She gained widespread recognition for her portrayal of Elizabeth Bennet in the BBC miniseries Pride and Prejudice (1995), a role th...
Jeremy Irvine
Jeremy Irvine as Charles Hall Age 35 · Gamlingay, Cambridgeshire, England, UK Jeremy William Fredric Smith (born 18 June 1990), better known as Jeremy Irvine, is an English actor who made his film debut in the epic war film War Horse (2011). In 2012, he portrayed Philip "Pip" P...

Audience Reviews

SWITCH. 4/10 Nov 24, 2019
In all likelihood, you will leave this film with a little more of an understanding of how the dictionary came to be, and a little more resentment for Gibson (one of the producers) for pushing this project to happen, regardless of its lacklustre subject. It's pleasant enough, but it's clear England must produce a certain number of period dramas a year and 2019 was just about to fall under the quota - thank god for the dictionary movie.

Usually with book-to-film adaptations, there is a spike in sales of said book - I can't imagine anyone rushing out to buy a dictionary after this though.
- Brent Davidson

Read Brent's full article...
https://www.maketheswitch.com.au/article/review-the-professor-and-the-madman-mel-gibsons-dictionary-origin-story-a-dry-read
mitohobe 8/10 May 06, 2021
I really like it. It had a story within a true Story. Which in my opinion made it a little complex and exciting. Good for young adults and up. Teenagers might not find it so compelling but that's just a short time in their life when they're looking for total entertainment and action. This is not that film but there is a great story to be told with a interesting backdrop of facts. Mel Gibson is excellent!! Be ready to be surprised with a few turns and twists. I really like this movie. I think it was very entertaining and interesting and at times exciting. Get your popcorn ready kick back and enjoy a movie that every other word is not the f word or the GD word. I really enjoyed it and as usual, Mel Gibson always deliver.
CinemaSerf 7/10 Mar 28, 2022
This is the best effort I've seen from Sean Penn since "Milk" almost twelve years ago. His portrayal of the schizophrenic William Chester Minor who, having spent almost 40 years of his life in Broadmoor psychiatric hospital, became one of the single most significant contributors to the orginal Oxford Dictionary of English is superb. He captures the flaws of this paranoid etymologist warts and all, and gels very well with Mel Gibson who, as the compiler of the tome - Dr. James Murray - also turns in a good, strong and, latterly, sympathetic and understanding performance too. This is essentially a double-hander with Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan and Steve Coogan helping to explain the story and releasing some of the emotional steam from time to time. It's a little slow in places, two hours could have done justice to this interesting story which seems overly padded at time. As you'd expect; it looks great with plenty of serious attention to detail and it also shines a little light on Victorian/Edwardian attitudes to mental illness.

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