An average movie

I wasn’t expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Sean Penn and Mel Gibson, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, it has been ages since both actors had a critical or commercial success (at least, Gibson had more luck as a director with ‘Hacksaw Ridge’) but I’m afraid this movie turned out to be another flop. But, to be honest, making a movie about the creation of a dictionary was maybe not the greatest idea in the world. On the other hand, I have to admit that the fact that a schizophrenic murderer became a major contributor was intriguing but, still, the damned thing never really worked. Basically, they tried to focus on both men but James Murray was pretty much reduced to a workaholic struggling to get this gigantic work done. In fact, they mostly focused on rehabilitating Dr. William Chester Minor but I think this approach was a mistake. Indeed, they kept telling us that the guy was actually not so bad, in fact, even brilliant, and, therefore, he should have been pretty much released. However, he did kill a random innocent man during a psychotic episode which means that he was maybe not guilty by insanity but still insane and there was absolutely no indication that it would never ever happen again. To make things worse, the widow of his victim actually fell in love with him which was downright ludicrous. I mean, that she would forgive him, sure, why not? But the whole love angle was just completely misguided though. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it was still an intriguing story and I guess it is worth a look.

6/10