- Director: Anand Tucker
- Screenplay: Patrick Marber
- Cast: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, Lesley Manville
- Cinematography: David Higgs
- Editing: Beverley Mills
- Score: Craig Armstrong
- Genre: Period thriller
- Runtime: 101 minutes
Seeing a film called ‘The Critic‘ then writing a critique of it afterwards felt very appropriate. Who dares to criticise the critic? Well, I’m sure the people who created this yawnfest won’t appreciate my opinions in any shape or form.
Ian McKellen is Jimmy Erskine, a theatre critic with an acid tongue and a poison pen. Through his harsh but honest reviews, he wields power over the actors of London’s theatres. Erskine is waspish and tart, McKellen does this so well it’s as if he’s not even acting – he gets to deliver a few Oscar Wilde-esques lines.
What follows is a major disappointment – not the film I was expecting at all. Billed as a thriller, it’s more of a romantic drama with a hint of threat. Erskine is fired because of cost-cutting measures at the newspaper he’s the resident entertainment critic of, along with the rest of the old guard. Thus, he plots his revenge against newspaper editor David Brooke (Mark Strong), using actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton) as a pawn in his game. But about a third of the way through, McKellen is no longer the focus – the love triangle between David, Nina and David’s son-in-law (Ben Barnes) takes centre stage. By not focusing on its main asset, I lost interest quickly. They could have made Erskine’s homosexuality (illegal in 1934, when this is set) more of a plot point than it was (it’s touched on in the first part) – this would allow him extra screentime and possibly add an interesting angle to it. McKellen is 85, I hope this doesn’t constitute a flat coda in his esteemed career. At least he didn’t off fall the stage here.
It’s mercifully not an overlong runtime – I’m glad; I was starting to doze off towards the end…
My rating: 3 / 10
SilverScreen 