It stars Mel Gibson, Sean Penn, Natalie Dormer, Eddie Marsan, Jennifer Ehle, Jeremy Irvine, David O'Hara, Ioan Gruffudd, Stephen Dillane, and Steve Coogan.

The film is about professor James Murray, who in 1879 became director of an Oxford University Press project, The New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (now known as the Oxford English Dictionary) and the man who became his friend and colleague, W. C. Minor, a doctor who submitted more than 10,000 entries while he was confined at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Crowthorne after being found not guilty of murder due to insanity.

Shot in Dublin in 2016, the film became part of a legal battle between Gibson and Safinia against Voltage Pictures, delaying its release until 2019 and resulting in the pair disowning the final product.

In 1872 London, retired United States Army surgeon William Chester Minor suffers from hallucinations in which he sees himself being persecuted by a soldier he had to brand for desertion.

For this reason, asylum director Richard Brayne decides to experiment with new techniques of psychological support: he allows Minor to keep a small library and to be able to paint.

However, Eliza finds herself pitying him and begins to visit him often, bringing him books as gifts; Minor reciprocates by teaching her to read so that she can pass it on to her children and allow them to have a better future.

The Oxford English Dictionary is completed in 1928, 70 years after its conception, consisting of twelve volumes instead of the initially planned four and composed of more than 400,000 words accompanied by over a million citations.

[3] Gibson, who originally intended to direct, hired his Apocalypto co-screenwriter Farhad Safinia to replace him, while he remained in the role of James Murray.

Among other things, it was alleged that Voltage Pictures refused to schedule a "critical" five days of filming in Oxford and that the director was denied final cut privileges.

[9][10] On June 19, 2018, Judge Ruth Kwan of the Los Angeles County Superior Court denied Gibson's motion for summary adjudication.

[21] Nick Allen of RogerEbert.com gave the film one and a half out of four stars, calling it "the latest fiasco in bad movie history... the presence of Gibson and his co-star Sean Penn give the project a stuffy sanctimoniousness.

"[22] Likewise, Jay Weissberg, reviewing for Variety, was more critical and stated: "For those that have been anticipating this curious, much-delayed oddity, the good news is that Gibson is fine; it's everything else that doesn't work.

"[23] In contrast, Tara McNamara, writing for Common Sense Media, said that: "Despite the fact that both the star/producer and the director have disavowed it, this isn't a bad film; it's beautifully shot and sensationally acted, and it tells a fascinating real-life story.