Stephen Fry has said about critics that should they arrive at the Pearly Gates and asked what their occupation was and they were given the answer, ‘Critic’ the person would in turn be given a withering reply by St Peter along the lines that, ‘Oh you criticize rather than create’. It’s a valid point and here the critic is Jimmy Erskine as played by Ian McKellen is a pompous, acerbic and frankly odious figure. Set in pre WWII Britain feared and revered in equal measure he is the chief theatre critic for newspaper The Daily Chronicle whose proprietor has recently passed away leaving it for his son David Brooke (Mark Strong) who is less than keen on Erskine’s catty prose. Neither is he too happy about Erskine’s propensity for rough sex in public parks in an era when gay men were persecuted by the public and prosecuted by police.
And Brooke is even less keen about his theatre critic’s gleeful evisceration of actress Nina Land’s (Gemma Atherton) stage work and there’s a reason for Brooke’s disdain for his critics reviews of her. It’s not long therefore before Erskine finds himself fired from n the paper and soon finds he has to make an alliance with Nina to get his job back. So whilst the critic starts off as an exploration of his working relationship with artists where it is at its most interesting it evolves into a thriller with a body count.
McKellen is, as might be expected, excellent as he relishes the role and the lines he venomously spits out in a script adapted by Patrick Marber from the novel ‘Curtain Call. Marber is a quite brilliant writer having been part responsible for many of Steve Coogan’s early Alan Partridge scripts but has since moved on to writing screenplays for the films ‘Notes on a Scandal’ (2006) and the excellent ‘Closer’ (2004) and his ways with a phrase gives the film several incisive lines. Perhaps the most notable is when Erskine tells Nina, ‘There is art in you and my disappointment is your failure to access it’.
The Critic is entertaining but it’s the first act with the relationship between critic and artist that deserved to be explored more. But it’s the performances that make this highly enjoyable led by McKellen and aided by Arterton, Strong and a neat cameo from the always great Lesley Manville in a film where sticks and stones may break bones but names will always hurt you.
related feature : Ian McKellen & Helen Mirren in ‘The Good Liar’
related feature : Actor James Dreyfus talks about his career, favourite films & future roles!
Here’s The Critic trailer……
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