The Critic: Ian McKellen Shines Dishing Out Murderous Opinions in an Imperfect Film
By Liz Braun
Rating: B
This critic says The Critic is an imperfect film saved by a terrific cast. In particular, Sir Ian McKellen steals the show as a preening newspaper god in 1930s London.
McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, the feared and mighty theatre critic at the Daily Chronicle. His pen is so much mightier than the sword that he’s capable of closing any production, or halting an actor’s career, with a few well-chosen nasty words in print.
Ian McKellen and Gemma Arterton in The Critic
Dubbed “The Beast”, Erskine is a well-known figure in the city, a bon vivant whose lifestyle includes picking up young men in the park at night. His orientation is not a secret, but now that the paper has a new owner in Viscount Brooke (Mark Strong), Erskine is cautioned to keep it all on the down-low.
Furthermore, Viscount Brooke wants The Chronicle to be a leading family newspaper, so he also wants Erskine to be kinder in his writing.
Erskine scoffs at the notion that anyone would dare try to meddle with his work, given that he’s been the paper’s critic for some 40 years. McKellen is all swagger here as Erskine, quick with a lavish insult and happy to be especially cruel in print to a young actress named Nina Land (Gemma Arterton).
His criticisms of Miss Land are so harsh that her mother (Lesley Manville) advises Nina to go and face Erskine; when Nina does, she and Erskine end up forging a kind of friendship.
That friendship comes in handy later when — oh, bother — Erskine and his companion Tom (Alfred Enoch) are arrested one night, exactly the situation Erskine had been warned against.
His employer is displeased. How can Erskine keep his job and make everything right again?
Blackmail seems expedient. Thereafter, The Critic gets darker and twistier and somewhat less interesting. The first part of the movie involves notions about free speech, ambition and living in the public eye; it also surveys a landscape of growing fascism in London. Much of that evaporates when things get dire and action begins to speak louder than words, as it were.
Despite all that, The Critic is entertaining throughout, mostly thanks to a strong cast that includes Ben Barnes as Nina’s former lover Stephen, and Romola Garai as Stephen’s chilly, aristocratic wife. The film, directed by Anand Tucker and written by Patrick Marber, is an adaptation of Anthony Quinn’s novel, Curtain Call.
The Critic played first in Toronto at TIFF 2023.
The Critic: Directed by Anand Tucker, written by Patrick Marber. Stars Sir Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton and Mark Strong. Opens in theatres Friday, Sept. 13.