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.

Poof! No doubt this movie will disappear quickly before our very eyes.

[The Professor] is more subservient to feel-good cliches than its too-cool-for-school veneer indicates.

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.