The Professor and the Madman

source: The Professor and the Madman

I love my unabridged Oxford English Dictionary and I loved the book by Simon Winchester. Against all odds, this film lived up to both. Two masterful actors, bad boys shoved into Victorian manners, brought these quirky characters to life. But it was the script, credited in part to John Boorman, that carried the film, using the power of words that the OED celebrates. Mel Gibson and Sean Penn get their share of great lines, but even Jennifer Ehle as Murray's wife gets a star turn. Everyone else is great, too (Eddie Marsan makes the most of his small role!).

Hey, I enjoy a Marvel comics flick or action adventure as much as the next guy but this is a REAL movie watching experience. The story is amazing, surprising and true! The interest and the tension is created by the characters and relationships. It makes you think and it makes you feel.The acting is superb. I was surprised to see it on Prime because it's a new movie with big time actors and I haven't heard a peep about it. I can tell you that it's better than most of the Best Picture nominees over the last two years and the acting performances easily rival the winners. I hope it gets the accolades it deserves.

I turned this on when I was tired. I didn't think I was in the mood to watch something like this at all when I found it on Starz. I even started watching something else on my iPad I thought would grab me more. The iPad was out of juice and died. I was going to change the channel, but next thing you know I was sucked in and watched the whole thing. it was the same thing as happened when I read the book. It just sucked me right in. The book had more about the dictionary, which did not diminish it, but it's no surprise they had to have less of that in the movie. This story is remarkable. It sounds too fantastic to be real, but quite the contrary, it's too fantastic not to be. No one could make this up.