Review: The Professor

For those fatigued by the quirks and idiosyncrasies Johnny Depp injects into nearly every role, The Professor finds Depp in one of his least fussy performances. For those wishing for a halfway decent Depp film, then this riff on Dead Poets Society meets American Beauty will surely disappoint.

Depp portrays Richard Brown, an English literature professor diagnosed with Stage IV lung cancer and informed that, without treatment, he has six months left to live. The news is devastating but also liberating for Richard proceeds to throw himself into a tailspin of social, sexual and professional misbehaviour. He tells his wife Veronica (Rosemarie DeWitt), who's recently revealed that she's been having an affair with his boss Henry (Ron Livingston), that they can pretty much do whatever they want provided they keep it discreet for the sake of their teenage daughter Olivia (Odessa Young). Whatever cares he had for educating his students dissipates - he tells his class that he'll give them passing grades in return for not having to teach them. Those who elect to remain in his class are assigned to read one great book and then teach its worth to their fellow students. Classes, if one can call them that, are conducted on lawns and in bars.

Richard finds time during his self-imposed alcoholic bender to have several sexual escapades, including one in a bar bathroom with a local waitress and another in his office with a male student. He has a flirtation with another student (Zoey Deutch, who deserves far better than this mediocrity) which, much like the entirety of the film, goes nowhere. All the while, he continues to rail against the dying of the light, exhorting his pupils to seize the day, and doing his best to make amends with his wife and daughter.

That The Professor, written and directed by Wayne Roberts, is halfhearted, uninspired and contrived is a bit of a shame. There are enough suggestions in Roberts' screenplay that this could have been one of those sophisticated, slightly screwball comedies from the Thirties and Forties or even from the early Sixties. One can well imagine someone like Cary Grant, David Niven or Rex Harrison essaying Richard with a masterful blend of blitheness and poignancy that would have made the story's themes more impactful and resonant. Alas, there's none of that ease to be found either in the film or Depp's efforts. He's charismatic enough, but one never gets a true sense of who Richard was, is, and is trying to be.

The Professor

Directed by: Wayne Roberts

Written by: Wayne Roberts

Starring: Johnny Depp, Zoey Deutch, Danny Huston, Rosemarie DeWitt, Devon Terrell, Odessa Young, Linda Emond, Ron Livingston