The Professor (2018) is an underrated film that I liked. It was about an English professor Richard Brown who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and has less than a year to live. How this news transforms the way he leads his remaining days is the story, which has been narrated in an enjoyable yet relatable manner. The film is available on Amazon Prime Video.
It is not easy to play the role of Richard Brown, you have to come out careless and indifferent but not arrogant and Johnny Depp has done it so well that in the initial ten minutes he makes you feel the agony the character is going through effortlessly. Richard shares a complicated relationship with his wife but loves his daughter a lot, he doesn’t share the news with them for a long time for different reasons. His confederate on this secret was his best friend and coworker Peter, played brilliantly by Danny Huston – the instances where Peter cries for his friend we join him too.
The dialogues were brief, candid and befitting the emotions in the scene perfectly. There is one scene where Richard is admitted to the hospital for a drug overdose, Peter comes rushing and he gets introduced to Richard’s helper Mr Santiago, who has admitted him in the hour of need. To the perplexed Peter, Richard answers “Meet Mr Santiago, he is my gardener. He is my emergency contact“, the look on Peter’s face was fantastic.
I liked this film, but it may not work for everyone, so that’s why it is getting a “Raw” rating in the Mangoidiots scale.
Johnny Depp as Richard Brown – The Professor (2018)
There was a Prof Randy Pausch at Carnegie Mellon Univ who was diagnosed with terminal cancer. He published a detailed diary of his last days. His life story is told in a best seller book “The last lecture “. The movie story is similar to Randy Pausch life