The Critic (2023)
Director: Anand Tucker
Screenwriters: Patrick Marber
Starring: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Lesley Manville, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Romola Garai, Alfred Enoch
Whenever a filmmaker presents an idea to a small British film company, they are restricted in what they can do to get funding. Small genre films (low budget horrors), wartime dramas, kitchen-sink mumblecore, or things revolving around royalty and aristocracy, seem to be the only viable points of access. And you get bonus points if it’s set at least 50 years in the past. Anything “British” with decent money pumped into it has serious USA connections.
For the most part, The Critic is one of the aforementioned period dramas. It is set around the 1930s, has got Sir Ian McKellen as an aged theatre critic who is very staunch on his views and never one to mince words to flatter sensibilities. It has Gemma Arterton as a starlet attempting to rise, only to come up against McKellen’s suits, deep voice, and poisonous pen. They’ve given Mark Strong a moustache and cast him as the new man running The Daily Chronicle, the newspaper McKellen writes for after his father passes. Then there are all the old cars and foggy lamps and upper-class accents you could hope for. It’s all very British, and exactly what you’d expect from a film with a budget nudging into just a few million pounds.
And yet, thankfully, The Critic doesn’t decide to do something heartwarming or saccharine. The film is ruthless and merciless, a story of plots and plans and backstabbing. McKellen’s Jimmy Erskine, having been fired from the paper over an arrest for public homosexual indecency (that being the excuse Strong needs), plots and schemes his way back to his position with sociopathic vigour. If there is a mark of genius in The Critic, it is that someone made the decision to cast Ian McKellen in the titular role.
Even when considering his turn as Magneto in the X-Men films, Ian McKellen has always been such an endearing character; one too charming to see as evil. This performance is one of his darkest. It’s impossible to take your eyes off him. He is at times majestic and almost noble (if misguided) in his staunch belief that it is his job to bring theatre to the best it can be and to discourage anything that would disgrace the noble medium, and at other times he is utterly reprehensible and psychopathic. And what a wonderful move by the filmmakers to ensure his character’s homosexuality is a part of his makeup and not an excuse to extol his love of art or his scheming; it is simply another part of him, and that’s a bold move for a smaller film with a big name behind it. McKellen turns in a performance that will, at the very least, be on the BAFTA longlist for Best Actor.
The film begins well, setting everything up in the traditional fashion. There aren’t many fireworks, but everything is neat and proper. Then it truly turns up the wick as it digs deep into the dark depths of the 30s art world, the power of the press, the corruption of those ruthless enough to do anything to maintain power and status. It’s the black side of the coin in comparison to similar period films with elderly leads, such as Living and One Life, and its tonal difference from others in its category certainly helps it to stand out. One could imagine The Critic being a three-part BBC series very easily, and it would go down a storm.
On that note, perhaps it should have been a three-parter…
Screenings at festivals in 2023 reportedly had mixed reviews, with a rushed ending being one of the film’s major issues. If they’ve done reshoots and re-cuts, it was in vain. Changing the runtime significantly would mess up contracts with investors, so there’s only so much any filmmaker can do, but they should have pushed harder. It needs another ten minutes to allow certain characters to truly come to terms with what has happened, to find themselves, and to therefore give everything a better punch. This sloppiness is evident in the final shot, which barely allows McKellen the time to give off a final line of voice-over before hastily cutting to the end credits. There is no time afforded to us to let the moment sink in. It’s as if someone with control announced: we must end now as bladders are ready to burst after 90 minutes.
So what is The Critic? Initially, it’s a great thirty minutes. Then it’s a wonderfully dark second act of 56 minutes. Then, finally, it is a sodden final 4 minutes. What an unfortunate way to spoil a delightful little picture, which is an otherwise brilliant treat of a film.
Score: 17/24
