The Critic
Directed by Anand Tucker
Written by Patrick Marber, Anthony Quinn
Starring Ian McKellan,Gemma Arterton, Lesley Manville, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch
Runtime: 94 minutes
In theaters September 13

by Kimberly L., Staff Writer

It is not difficult to picture Sir Ian McKellan as one of the most revered theater critics in 1930s London. He already walks the walk and carries all the experience to talk the talk with an acting career that started a lifetime before many of his co-stars were born, going under the microscope of four generations of theatrical fault-finders. It feels safe to assume no leaps or stretches were required for this performance, and that visible lack of challenge seeps throughout the film from role to role. Once I let go of high expectations for the narrative, I was treated to cinematically stunning aesthetics and lighting worth the watch.

Based on Anthony Quinn’s novel Curtain Call, the film plods heavy-handedly to carve out its own place in storytelling and gets lost in an albeit quite lovely backdrop of pre-war aristocratic London. Movies are not often driven by a lovely stroll through the square at dusk, but I found myself longing for more plotless walks about town and less plot even where plot (should have) thickened. 

There are four leads in the film, but only McKellan’s critic Jimmy Erskine is realized enough to carry his weight in screen time. Erskine on the surface is a surly and stubborn relic of a bygone era of theater critics and there is an argument to stop there on his virtues even by the end of the film, but there are intermittent glimmers of a greater purpose that mostly fizzle out while other storylines fail to gain momentum. David Brooke (Mark Strong) is the new owner of The Chronicle, the newspaper where Erskine writes, and who intends to rebrand the publication for a more family-friendly audience that leaves little room for Erskine, both a brutish critic and gay exhibitionist on the verge of being outed in a time where homosexuality alone is illegal.

The Critic utilizes every dramatic element known to keep viewers hugging the turns–allusions to rough, law-breaking sex romps in the park at dusk, a family-affair affair,old fashioned extortion, looming war, and, of course, murder most foul, yet still fails to command attention. Gemma Arterton’s Nina Land is immediately believable as a struggling actress, but the sense of urgency I anticipate from Land to save her career and her private life never manifests. I share her sorrow at what could have been as she traipses with moderate and surprisingly likable lunacy into her drunken and short-lived final act. 

Naturally, Erskine steals the show with McKellan at the helm, but the lens that shows him to the world appears so inconclusive on its own perception of the character that the rest of the production gets lost. A future director’s cut might come in handy allowing supporting roles like Alfred Enoch’s Tom Turner to breathe plausibility into the many-faceted characters the audience are led to believe exist.

Director Anand Tucker has created something visually striking that can hold its own against period piece giants. Jewel-toned lighting and intense, nearly tactile contrast of architecture and costuming stayed on my mind for hours after viewing. Nods to the resurgence of romanticism in the modernist art scene of 1930s London and Europe punctuate scene to scene calling on period icons like Tamara de Lempicka, Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, and Marguerite Kelsey. Toward the end of the film, a crucial scene between two leads set around a bathtub and the surrounding architecture so woefully lovely it practically begs to be painted. 

There is so much splendor to have McKellan on screen again that fans of the legend, and I would like to think that’s everyone, will find enough to like between his hefty time in front of the camera and the darkly charming atmosphere to barrel through the film. From personal experience, fans of Midsomer Murders and Murder, She Wrote might even find themselves wanting to give it a second watch despite the inconsistent pace.