"The Professor and the Madman"

When I read "The Professor and the Madman" a few years ago, I loved it. The story is one of those over the top crazy but true stories. Netflix this month is presenting the 2019 movie adaptation of the book. Mel Gibson bought the rights to the movie some twenty years ago and he has once again teamed up with Farhad Safrina (Apocalypto, 2006) to direct and produce "Madman".

James Murray (Mel Gibson) is a lexicographer who can speak many languages; self taught, he left school at 14 years old and now teaches at one of the most prestigious schools on the planet. Murray is offered the position to write the Oxford dictionary, a job that entails work and effort that even he did not realize would be this difficult. Stuck in mire, Murray proposes a crowdsource (a word that was yet invented), common citizens were encouraged to send words into both he and his small team of people replete with definitions.

It is serendipitous that Dr William C. Minor (Sean Penn), a U.S. Army Surgeon finds this request. When Minor provides over 10,000 words to the team, Murray takes it upon himself to go visit Dr. Minor. A non judgmental, religious man, Murray thinks nothing of it that Dr. Minor is not running the asylum, but rather, is an inmate at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum.

As with the wife of the man Minor murdered, Murray becomes fond of the gentile doctor, in fact, so has the entire staff at the facility he occupies. Dr. Minor is a man of many talents, he paints, reads, draws and is a philologist. His knowledge about so many things is so vast and deep, yet he is a very humble man. In saving a guards life he is afforded many leniencies, a bigger cell, books, easels, paints and writing implements.

"The Professor and the Madman" can be wordy at times and it is a bit too long, but the movie is sure to keep the attention for anyone who likes either movies about academia, old England, or men and woman who over come so much in their lives to produce something worth while. The movie in the end is very uplifting and it will move many.

With a very strong supporting cast, "Madman" is able to to take the book by Simon Winchester and expand upon it. The book is shorter, more to the point; the movie is able to go into the main characters lives a bit; we get to know the people more with the film. As such, we feel for each person more than we did reading the book.

Dr. Richard Brayan (Stephan Dillane) is the chief doctor at the institution. Dillane is brilliant in the way he brings out the best in Minor; calm and self assured, Brayan both respects and admires his equal. Natalie Dormer is equally as brilliant as the widow who is illiterate and will stop at nothing to feed her family. Poor but principled, she is able to forgive her husbands murderer. Eddie Mason as the asylums head guard and Jennifer Ahle as Murray's wife are equally as affective in supporting roles.

Mel Gibson's Scottish accent is on point; Sean Penn's accent varies at times from a New York accent and at other times, he has a Southern accent. Both actors do very nicely in their roles and the interaction between the two are very intense at times, subtle at others. At all times, however, they take the show on their backs and run with it. Even though the films producer, Voltage Films denied Gibson the final cut, for the most part the movie is very watchable and entertaining on many levels.

"The Professor and the Madman" won the 2020 International Film Festival Critics Award. The movie never really had a chance to gain any momentum because of the Corona Virus, but it is hopeful that it will get its just desserts on Netflix.