There is irony writing a review for a movie about a theatre critic and this is a story about how a critic can change people’s lives for the better or worse.
Anthony Quinn (no not that one), wrote a novel, Curtain Call in 2015. The screen writer, Patrick Marber, has used part of that story to create The Critic. Reading about Curtain Call, part of me wishes they had included more of the book’s story line.
Ian McKellen, plays the lead role, Jimmy Erskine, who writes reviews for The Chronicle newspaper. McKellen, who has more recently played Magneto in X-men and Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, is brilliant as this acerbic and somewhat flamboyant writer, who creates a plan to manipulate both newspaper and theatre actress. There begins the troubled web between Erskine, a young theatre actress Nina Land, (Gemma Arterton), the recently inherited newspaper owner Viscount David Brooke (Mark Strong) and painter Stephen Wyley (Ben Barnes).
Erskine’s ‘live in’ secretary and assistant is played by Tom Turner, who we will remember from the Harry Potter series. Erskine and Turner are also avoiding the police, keeping their homosexuality behind closed doors.
Set in 1930s London, the foggy dark streets and art deco styling provide an atmospheric backdrop. The first two thirds of the movie are a somewhat slow dance of character development before a more dramatic ending. I went away, contemplating how powerful critics and reviewers are, affecting so many lives around them, all to make themselves relevant in changing times.
The Critic is now showing at limited theatres around Perth