The Critic (2024) (REVIEW) | Projector | Ian McKellen is delightfully wicked
[Ad - Sponsored by INTOTHEAM] Ian McKellen is a theatre critic with a nasty wit in this unusual book adaptation, but Film Brain has some critical thoughts of his own...
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00:00This video is sponsored by Into the AM.
00:03Hello and welcome to Projector, and on this episode, Ian McKellen is the critic with a nasty wit and an even nastier scheme to save his job.
00:11IAN MCKELLEN IS THE CRITIC WITH A NASTY WIT AND AN EVEN NASTIER SCHEME TO SAVE HIS JOB.
00:11IAN MCKELLEN IS THE CRITIC WITH A NASTY WIT AND AN EVEN NASTIER SCHEME TO SAVE HIS JOB.
00:28In 1934, the most notorious theatre critic in London is Jimmy Erskine, played by Ian McKellen,
00:33with Nina Land, played by Jem Arton, often on the receiving end of his put-downs.
00:38Jimmy writes for the Daily Chronicle, which has been taken over by Mark Strong's David Brooke after his father's death,
00:43and when Jimmy is arrested for his homosexuality, Brooke sees the opportunity of firing him with a month's notice.
00:49When Jimmy learns that Brooke is a secret admirer of Nina, Jimmy employs her to seduce Brooke in a blackmail scheme to keep his job.
00:57The critic is based on the 2015 book Curtain Call, written by Anthony Quinn.
01:01No, not that one. I mean the one that was the film critic for The Independent until 2013, at which point he became a full-time novelist.
01:09It's actually the first in a series of books featuring the same characters, but the movie is very loosely adapted from the source material.
01:15The book is more of a murder mystery centred on the Typin Killer, so named because the murderer puts a typin through his victim's tongues.
01:24This plot has been entirely removed from the film, along with several characters who are related to it,
01:29while still broadly keeping it an ensemble piece set in the 30s theatre world,
01:33and does keep some of the same characters, but adds several new ones for the film version.
01:38Although, weirdly, the film is set two years earlier than the book, which was set in 1936.
01:44Jimmy was more of a side character in the book, he was in it, but he ended up being something of a scene stealer.
01:50So the film reconfigures the plot so that now he is at the centre of its story.
01:55The film is adapted by Patrick Marber, who is a prolific screen and theatre writer who previously adapted Notes on a Scandal,
02:01and the film is directed by Anand Thakkar, whose last film credit was the terrible Amy Adams rom-com Leap Year, which was 14 years ago, believe it or not.
02:11The film premiered at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, where it received fairly middling reviews at the time,
02:18but the version that's playing in cinemas now is not the version that played in festivals a year ago.
02:23That's because the producers, after that response, decided to rework the movie,
02:28and that was aided by money from the newly launched UK distributor, TrueBrit Entertainment.
02:34This is their launch title, so they put money into it to add new scenes, reshoot footage, and do a top-to-bottom re-edit.
02:42Now, as a critic who's known for being a bit passionate in my own reviews, do all these changes make it a better movie?
02:49Mmm, sorta. Not really.
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03:25It's easy to see why they made Jimmy the central character of the film version, especially when he's played by Ian McKellen.
03:31Jimmy is a deliciously wicked character who is extremely arrogant and something of a prima donna.
03:36He doesn't want to be interrupted in his work, especially when he's writing his notes during the interval.
03:41Jimmy doesn't just enjoy the power that his critiques give him, which can make him break shows and careers,
03:47but also he wields it brutally and scathingly for anything that he disapproves of.
03:53While he can be glowing in his praise, he's far more known for the venom of his negative reviews,
03:58earning him the nickname The Beast.
04:01Hmm, that kind of reminds me of someone.
04:03He especially enjoys being very deliberate and specific about his word choices,
04:07making sure to twist the knife in the way that feels most cruel.
04:11It's his way of asserting his sense of superiority, both over his readers, but also the careers of the plays that he sees.
04:18At one point, there's actually a scene where an airtip pulls him up over an obscure word in one of his reviews,
04:24and he defends it by going,
04:25I don't think our readers can read.
04:28When that airtip forces him to change it, he crudely and begrudgingly alters it to fat arse,
04:34which makes clear that the intent of much of his reviews is to simply insult people.
04:39So far, so Anton Ego, but McKellen not only manages to make such a pompous and selfish figure watchable,
04:47but he manages to give him some level of depth than just simply being a caricature,
04:51which he could have easily been in lesser hands.
04:54Jimmy is very loosely based on the real-life critic James Agate.
04:58Jimmy looks up to Oscar Wilde in particular, claiming he met him as a young man,
05:03and there's meant to be a deliberate parallel to the fact that he, like Wilde, lives large almost to the point of self-destruction.
05:11But also, like Wilde and like Agate in real life, Jimmy is homosexual,
05:16and you have to remember that this is at a time when homosexuality was criminalized,
05:21so being openly gay was extremely dangerous, and his sexuality is something of an open secret,
05:29especially amongst those of the paper.
05:32Everyone knows, but as long as he keeps it out of the headlines, that's all fine.
05:37Jimmy himself seems to think that his privileged position working at the paper protects him somewhat,
05:42and I think that encourages his behaviour to a certain extent, because he thinks that he's above it all.
05:48He is the paper, as he describes himself.
05:51Jimmy lives with his secretary, Tom Turner, who's played by Alfred Enoch,
05:55but he's not just the one that's typing up his reviews and offering word choices,
06:00he's also Jimmy's partner, and serves as something of his conscience at some points,
06:05appealing to his better nature, the beauty, rather than the beast.
06:09And McKellen is terrific, as always. He's absolutely relishing the part.
06:14He is chain-smoking all the way through the film, and gleefully delivering the critic's choice insults.
06:20There's one moment where he compares the performance to a deflating dirigible, which especially tickled me.
06:26If I was going to compare the critic to something, it would be Marba's previous screenplay, Notes on a Scandal,
06:32but here there's less of a surprise to McKellen playing this kind of role.
06:36He has played villains plenty of times before.
06:39You think famously of his Magneto in the X-Men film series, Richard III, the Good Liar a few years ago,
06:47even Iago in Trevor Nunn's staging of Othello.
06:50I know, I have a BA in film and theatre.
06:53Now, you compare that to Judi Dench, who was the star of Notes on a Scandal,
06:57and Dench is normally known for being quite gentle and righteous as a screen presence,
07:02so it's very surprising to see her so venomous and scathing about everyone in her vicinity.
07:08That doesn't make Ian McKellen's performance less enjoyable, just less unexpected in the same way.
07:15There's not that same weird, cathartic charred as seeing Dench play very much against type.
07:22The newspaper Jimmy writes for, the Daily Chronicle, is clearly inspired by right-wing family newspapers
07:28like the real-life Daily Mail.
07:29There's a couple of moments where the Mail is actually described as the in-universe comparator to the Chronicle,
07:35and Mark Strong's David Brooke is the new owner and editor.
07:39His father previously owned the paper, and he dies at the beginning of the movie,
07:43and obviously he didn't have a great relationship with his father
07:46because he calls him a bastard in the film's opening moments.
07:49So, Brooke is new management, and he wants to make changes at the paper.
07:52He wants to restore the reputation of the Chronicle, and he wants to change it in his own image,
07:57and he doesn't particularly like Jimmy or his attitude because Jimmy is part of the newspaper's old guard.
08:03He, like Ron Cook's opera critic, for example, spent much of their time boozing it up together when they're not doing their work.
08:11They think they're untouchable because they represent the paper, they've been there for the longest time, and they aren't.
08:18Jimmy is repeatedly warned of these on thin ice, especially because Brooke is very protective of the paper's reputation,
08:24and he could potentially threaten that.
08:27So, when Jimmy is arrested, Brooke sees that as the right time and excuse to oust him from the paper and do exactly what he wants to do.
08:36And Mark Strong is reliable as ever, playing Brooke as very much a man of reputation, not just of the papers, but also his own.
08:43And there's something kind of noble about him, in a sense, a kind of integrity, that Strong underplays quietly.
08:50There's rumours that he's involved in a tragic marriage.
08:54When the critic and Brooke first encounter each other, he can barely hide his disdain for him,
09:00but he knows how to play the politics of the paper, and he knows how to communicate.
09:06He does have a degree of patience with Jimmy, until he doesn't.
09:11Another Strong performance in the film is Gemma Arson as Nina Land, who's an actress that desperately seeks validation.
09:17She's been acting for years, and she wants to be a star,
09:21but she's now at the point where she's starting to age out of being the young starlet, and she has very little to show for it.
09:27She's very much going from job to job to job.
09:30And Leslie Manville plays her overbearing stage mother.
09:33She's trying to help out, but in a very controlling way, even though she wants the best for her daughter.
09:39There's an early scene where she tries to interfere with the critic, and the critic is very, very angry at her for doing so.
09:47Nina actually looks up to Jimmy as much as she despises him, because his reviews were actually the reason she started acting.
09:54But now, unfortunately, she is the victim of his cruel barbs, and she has taken so much of them over the years,
10:02that eventually she just goes out one day and confronts him about it.
10:06And when that happens, an unusual relationship starts to form between them.
10:11Jimmy actually starts giving her advice and help with her acting,
10:16especially because he feels that that sense of needing to be validated actually appears in her performances.
10:23She overacts, she does too much, and his main piece of advice is less.
10:30And it's in these scenes that we actually start to see a softer side to Jimmy, that helps him be more empathetic to the audience.
10:37And that is crucial, because, again, the central character of the movie can't be a one-note, cruel critic caricature.
10:45Nina's vulnerability and anxiety make her very easily exploited.
10:49She's deeply fragile, and that's something that Jimmy takes advantage of when he involves Nina in his scheme against Brooke.
10:56He understands that Brooke has an interest in Nina, so he concocts this scheme and recruits her in it,
11:03understanding that she craves his validation most.
11:08He requires that she does this for him in exchange for positive reviews of her plays.
11:14He has the ability to turn her into a star, while also threatening that if she doesn't, he will absolutely ruin her.
11:23And Arterton is terrific.
11:26She is holding her own with McKellen, who she often shares many of the scenes in the film with, and I think she's an underrated performer.
11:34She obviously had that patch where she was appearing in a lot of big-budget blockbusters, but they didn't make the best use of her.
11:40And a few years ago, she decided to move away from that and focus on smaller projects.
11:45And you can definitely see that with something like The Critic, which benefits her, and she benefits the movie.
11:53The Critic is being billed as a thriller, and I think that's being maybe a little bit generous in terms of description.
11:59I personally found it to be more of a character drama, but it's also a very uneven one, especially in the first half,
12:06where it feels a bit unfocused before the blackmail plot actually comes into view around the halfway point of the film.
12:14It tries to keep the ensemble feeling of the book, which is very period-specific, and there's a lot of detail in the movie, but with somewhat mixed results.
12:24For instance, a major subplot in the movie is the rise of fascism that's playing out in the background.
12:30The cop that arrests Jimmy is a fascist, for example. We see the badge on his jacket, but also Oswald Mosley is name-dropped.
12:38There's a scene where Jimmy actually confronts a group of black shirts and taunts them on their uniforms walking down the street.
12:46There's a moment where Tom is afraid to walk down there as a black man, and Jimmy actually encourages him to walk down there because we have every right to walk down there.
12:56And it's actually a great scene. It's a fantastic moment because McKellen is brilliant in it.
13:01There's something quite amusing about him taunting and flirting with danger in that way,
13:06and there's a catharsis for the audience at seeing him turn his scathing wit towards a deserving target.
13:13But it's a good scene that actually, ironically, shouldn't be in the movie, and the problem is that it doesn't really go anywhere.
13:23They put in all this period detail into the movie, but it doesn't actually factor into the main plot or feel especially relevant, so it just ends up detracting.
13:34You end up going, why does it focus so much on this stuff?
13:38I think this is because of the very slight shift in setting from book to film.
13:42The book was set two years later, and if you think of major events in 1936, you would think of the abdication of Edward VIII,
13:51who, of course, was notoriously a fascist sympathiser.
13:55So having that in the background of the story, and having all of these events tying in with it, makes sense.
14:02But if you remove that, suddenly these all lack that context, and it feels purposeless.
14:09And while the film has an extremely strong cast, which makes it highly watchable, I don't always think they're very well utilised.
14:16For example, Lesley Manville gets a few scenes early on in the movie, prominently,
14:21and then her character almost totally disappears until she pops up at the end of the movie.
14:26And I don't think this is necessarily a result of the editing, but more the fact that this is just a small part.
14:32Apparently, she was filming this alongside her work on The Crown, but that means that we've cast the actor to give a bit more depth to what is ultimately a bit part,
14:42and you think that Manville could have had a bit more to play here.
14:46You've also got a subplot with Ben Barnes, who's actually making his first film appearance in a decade.
14:52He plays the artist Stephen, and he's working on a portrait of the writers and employees of the Daily Chronicle.
14:58And, obviously, Jimmy wants to be a part of that.
15:01There's actually an early scene where we see Jimmy sat down for a session with Stephen.
15:07And Jimmy wants to be a part of this extremely badly because he figures it's his way of being immortalised as being part of the Chronicle.
15:15And this ties in with those themes of legacy that run all throughout the film, but especially with Jimmy.
15:22That's the reason why he compares himself to Wilde, because he sees himself as being inspired, but maybe perhaps equal in terms of his thinking.
15:33He wants his writing to be something that's studied after he's gone.
15:38But also, you see, Stephen is having an affair with Nina, who's been convinced by Jimmy to seduce Brooke,
15:45who, unbeknownst to Jimmy, is Stephen's father-in-law.
15:49If this sounds really convoluted and like something out of a daytime soap,
15:54especially when, of course, it obviously all blows up, then, yeah, it is.
15:59That's because Ramola Garai plays Stephen's wife, who is Brooke's sister, but it's a largely peripheral and thankless role, unfortunately.
16:08And you're probably starting to see the issue here. There's far too many characters and storylines competing for screen time.
16:14And I actually think the film might have benefitted from being tightened up even further,
16:19to push it even more towards straightforward thriller territory and maybe drop the extraneous elements.
16:26Especially because, in my opinion, I do think the film loses something when McKellen is off screen.
16:32Especially because he is such a magnificent screen presence.
16:35But just in general, despite the strong cast, it feels like there's not quite a spark when he isn't on screen.
16:45I do think the film does get stronger when the blackmail plot goes into motion.
16:50But even then, when that happens, there is about a 15-minute stretch when McKellen disappears out of the movie,
16:56and it just feels weirdly flat. There's not enough tension actually being built up out of that particular plotline.
17:05Instead, there's more of a sense of theatrical tragedy to the way it unfolds, which I suppose makes sense.
17:12The film turns much, much darker than anticipated in its final third.
17:17The way that Jimmy's scheme starts to affect and taint everyone involved with it in unexpected and surprising ways,
17:24there are some devastating plot turns as the scheme starts to spiral out of control.
17:31There, the thriller elements start to become more prominent and it starts to become more compelling.
17:37Especially as Jimmy's true chilling nature, in all his callousness, starts to really emerge at this point.
17:45It goes from simply being simple insults in print to something far more Machiavellian and selfish and sinister and absolutely, totally destructive.
17:59The Craig is a decent movie, as it should be with all that talent involved with it, but it's also not a great one.
18:05McKellen, obviously, is the highlight of the movie, as is Arterton, and the scenes they share together are easily the best in the movie.
18:14But there's also something about the adaptation and the direction that doesn't quite grip in the way that it really should do,
18:22and even though they've tried to address this by adding new scenes and recutting the film,
18:27it still feels like there's something missing, something absent.
18:31It doesn't quite gel together all the elements, and I think it's simply because the storytelling is a bit too messy and distracted,
18:39and it has that at its core, fundamentally. You can't change that with simply just recutting, that's a writing and adaptation issue.
18:49It is an enjoyable watch, largely on the basis of McKellen, but you won't be coming back for an encore.
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19:15Until next time, I'm Matthew Buck, Fading Out.