The Professor

There's a faint boozy whiff of the Jack Sparrows about Johnny Depp's sozzled performance in this low-key tale of an academic who discovers he has advance-stage cancer. As he faces his imminent demise, Depp stands up to his unfaithful wife and encourages his students to seize the day - while also enjoying as much sex, drugs and drink as he can lay his hands on. 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. There are a few moments in director Wayne Roberts's screenplay where Depp's bad behaviour does cross the line into plain boorishness, but, if you can overlook such transgressions in taste, the film ambles along quite amicably, with Depp's rakish charm to the fore.