THE PROFESSOR (2018 MOVIE): THE REVIEW
For a minute. Just for a minute, I could have sworn I saw 2022 in the description before I clicked the neon mini-size box with a downward-facing white arrow in it.
What I wouldn’t naturally have downloaded if I had seen the '1' between 0 and the last 2 in the year written along with the movie title, turned out to be one of the best movies I had ever downloaded.
'The Professor' was the title of the movie and what had my interest most, was the major cast.
It was Johnny Depp for God's sake!!!
After all the rave about his divorce earlier this year, and seeing a movie I assumed was released this year also, my curiosity was without questioning, heightened.
"Wow, does he age at all?" was my first thought when I saw him in the first scene of the movie.
Sitting in his doctor's office, his back arched, hands held tightly together, and faced downwards with his brows furrowed, as the reality of what the doctor was saying hit him.
He was diagnosed with a type of throat cancer that could only let him live for as long as a year with treatment, or half a year without treatment.
Well, I know you'll say he was just acting his role, but I believe that it was more than that. So, Johnny being Johnny, preferred to LIVE without treatment.
"No. I can now" he said to his friend-colleague, Peter, when he told him about his health and Peter had said, "you don't smoke" with wide eyes.
I still find myself laughing in the first class scene after his health discovery.
"I no longer have time to be wasted, nor do I intend wasting yours" were his words as he screened the class of students who were proactive, not interested in using the course in the future, and who didn't dress like they were truly interested in the course.
He was left with 10 students, which leads me to introduce to y'all, another cast I was happy to see in the movie.
Zoey Dutch!!!
Of course, I still hadn’t figured out the movie wasn’t a 2022 movie, so I thought "why does she look younger than she did in Not Okay? Must be the makeup" I decided.
She played the role of Claire, the niece to the president of the school she went to and where Johnny was working.
Uncle Henry Wright. The President of the school and Johnny's wife, Veronica, sexual interest. You'll find it easy to dislike the character.
"I mean, he's so peach melba. Just slimy and..." were Johnny's descriptions of him.
To be honest, I also didn't like the character Veronica very much. I felt she was...well not very pleasing. Not towards Johnny nor their gay daughter Olivia.
"Uh, it’s just a phase" Veronica had said while laughing when Olivia came out as gay. She called it “a call for attention”.
And as if it wasn't enough ruining one person's dinner, she told Johnny about her affair with Henry.
"I'm having an affair and I thought that you should know" she declared with her back straight against her chair, a glass of wine in hand and her eyes leveled straight across the dinner table to meet Johnny's.
Johnny took that well if you ask me. Laughed, and made fun of both Henry and Veronica.
"No, no, no, no. Veronica. That's real revolting. Are you out of your mind? Come on. At least have a little bit of taste in your infidelity" he mocked.
The fifth chapter of the movie was titled "still have something to say". It was the tragedy of the movie.
In his toast to Henry at the "boring" dinner, he called for his colleagues and friends, if he truly had any, Johnny told the ears that could hear about uncle Henry's infidelity with the wives of the faculty, praised his friend-colleague Peter, and told everyone, including his wife about his impending death.
"Seize your fucking existence folks. Why don't we make death our closest fucking companion, so that we can finally have a second, a millisecond to appreciate that little bit of time we have left. And most important of all, let's live well so that we may fucking die well" Johnny's closing remark at the dinner.
To his wife he said "please try and find some happiness" and to his daughter, he said, "you stay on this path of yours, you hear me? You stay on this path that's yours. You're doing it right kid".
Then he drove off into the night to a destination unknown to even himself, where he intends to die alone.
THE PROFESSOR.
PS, it's a 2018 movie.
