The Professor and the Madman

As “unfilmmable” as a movie about men lost in words, attempting to write a dictionary might seem, there is a better picture in this subject, based on journalist/history buff Simon Winchester’s best selling book. Limiting its scope, beefing up the connection between the “consanguineous” correspondents, their letters and their meetings, giving the two men competing agendas (acceptance by academia vs “redemption”) rather than shoehorning both of them into one and losing the “love story” would have been a start.

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.”

What a superficial and tedious motion picture, never quite bad enough to be campy, never remotely good enough to justify watching it instead of reading the book’s Wikipedia page.

For those that have been anticipating this curious, much-delayed oddity, the good news is that Gibson is fine; it’s everything else that doesn’t work.

The film’s only real draws are Gibson and Penn, who come at the material from opposite ends of the acting philosophy spectrum...It's simply confounding, much like the rest of the movie.

I don't agree with the professional critics giving this film such a low score. I thought Mel Gibson did a fine job as well as Sean Penn. The story keeps moving at a nice clip and is interesting.

The Professor and the Madman is an intriguing title for a film, yet the concept sounds rather lackluster to most people. I had heard great things about this film from a friend and I was not disappointed in the execution of this film. Mel Gibson did a great job with this film and his role in it, sitting on this movie for years and years before it was produced. There was sadly some behind the scenes drama that lead to this movie not being very well promoted. Sean Penn did amazing as The Madman. This is a must watch in my opinion. It's also hilarious how the audience genuinely seems to enjoy this film, but the critics panned it pretty hard. Sean Penn is the one behind bars in this Prison Drama for a crime that he committed and tries to atone for. He is also losing his mind for the Psychological Drama aspects of this film, which makes him a sad character. One could say this is a Biography since it is based on real people and real events. The Drama in this film is always there around every corner and it's portrayed excellently. This is mostly true History based on how the original Oxford dictionary was created.

tienes escenas muy shockeantes innecesarias, la historia esta mal contada, y la viuda se ve que es la razon por la cula aceptaron estas estrellas.

The plot I'd read of this film sounded interesting and the cast seemed decent enough (I like Sean Penn, certainly), so I thought I'd give this a go. At first it was interesting but I lost interest in it after a while - I couldn't entirely follow some of the sub plots and its rather sombre. I certainly didn't find it gripping or anything. I wouldn't recommend this, no.

Gibson and Penn give brilliant performances that are sadly brought down by the slow pacing and the terrible second half. I can see why Gibson and the director disavowed this film.