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The Professor

Play trailer 2:30 Poster for The Professor R 2019 1h 30m Comedy Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
11% Tomatometer 19 Reviews 77% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
After learning he has six months to live, a college lecturer transforms into a rebellious party animal. To the shock of his wife and school chancellor -- and to the delight of his students -- he leads a crusade against authority and hypocrisy.
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The Professor

The Professor

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Critics Consensus

A muddled story populated with thinly written characters and arranged around a misguided Johnny Depp performance, The Professor fails early and often.

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Critics Reviews

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Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times 06/25/2019
Depp, sporting a distractingly foppish, unfurling-flag hairdo, commits to his character's tricky balancing act but over-relies on his signature rakishness to fully convince. Go to Full Review
Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times 05/17/2019
1.5/4
Poof! No doubt this movie will disappear quickly before our very eyes. Go to Full Review
Nick Allen RogerEbert.com 05/17/2019
2/4
[The Professor] is more subservient to feel-good cliches than its too-cool-for-school veneer indicates. Go to Full Review
Jamie Healy Radio Times 06/17/2019
3/5
It's American Beauty meets Dead Poets Society given a terminal-disease twist, and while not as scathing nor as inspirational as those films, The Professor happily mines laughs from the darkest of places. Go to Full Review
Todd Jorgenson Cinemalogue 06/07/2019
Johnny Depp finds some emotional depth amid the eccentricities, but this muddled character study about a dying man's final days can't match his efforts. Go to Full Review
Ron Wilkinson It's Just Movies 05/30/2019
7/10
An off-season ditty for Johnny Depp, this short story of a short life gives Depp the time to do a short performance. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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Bob S @RT71971692 2d A cuckold caught in an arrogant and snide script that postulates the answer to mortality is alcoholism, sex, drugs and running away. See more Vincent V @RT22737680 Jun 30 You laugh, you cry, you question your life and your place in the world. An absolute stunning performance, a remarkable feat of exploration of the human condition… even at the end. Be prepared to feel desperate for more, but completely satisfied with what you are given. See more Giorgio G @GioBlob Jun 23 Johnny Depp is the most chameleon of all actors. Needless to say that he plays his part absolutely perfect. The story, though somehow sad, is also an ode to life, and a kick into everybody's ass to get up and live life to the fullest. And this movie is exactly about this kind of person, those 98% of the world population, who all might have big dreams never to be fulfilled, living on the bare minimum of the meaning of life itself. And I am not talking about financials here. Sometimes we all might just need a shove in the right direction, others might need a real kick in the butt to wake up and start living. After all, we all have only about 40-45 years of free adult life, before our bodies become to bristle to really enjoy it all as we should have in the first place. Let's all take a look at Richard in this movie (Johnny) and copy a bit of his new attitude to life, not to death, before it might simply be too late. 9/10 points. See more AnnemieM T @RT96507418 Mar 17 The Professor was one of the worst movies I ever watched in my entire life and I am not old. It is depressing and dark. Not funny, not exiting, no hope, just awful. I wished I hadn't watched it. See more Par H @Parhwy Mar 11 Richard Says Goodbye (2019) is a 91-minute-long film I watched on Prime in March 2026. This is a film of two halves in six acts. The chapter font is as beautiful as Depp’s hair. That coif is king. The first half is interesting, entertaining. The second half does what a lot of comedies do: ends in a neat bow. I get it; even Greek comedies ended in a marriage. This film ends with dullness and gutters out with an awful green-screen driving scene. They even ruined Depp’s kingly coif with that icky, sickly green-screen oddness. If you watch this, look out for how much food is on the dinner plates – it’s much. Also, while hors d’oeuvres are still circulating, they are called to tables – where soup is already being eaten. Hey now? Christine Willes (who I’ll forever love as Dolores Herbig from Dead Like Me) gets a brief gig, such joy! This is a whiskey-sipping film where the director and the writer should have been two people not one person. Rewatch? No. Recommend? Yes, only for Depp’s hair. See more Fenon S @Fenz0.8 Mar 7 I don't think this movie gets enough credit. A lot of people see it as just a poor performance, for a side film, by a well-known actor. But I think it really captures the human condition. It shows how, even though humans are beautifully simple, (which may misunderstood) we are also incredibly complex. When we confront our mortality, we break the boundaries of our consciousness, and that’s something more people should recognize. See more Read all reviews
The Professor

My Rating

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Movie Info

Synopsis After learning he has six months to live, a college lecturer transforms into a rebellious party animal. To the shock of his wife and school chancellor -- and to the delight of his students -- he leads a crusade against authority and hypocrisy.
Director
Wayne Roberts
Producer
Warren Carr, Brian Kavanaugh-Jones, Greg Shapiro
Screenwriter
Wayne Roberts
Distributor
Saban Films
Production Co
Relic Pictures, Global Road Entertainment, Automatik Entertainment
Rating
R (Some Drug Use|Sexual Content|Language)
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 17, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 17, 2019
Runtime
1h 30m