Film Review/Ed Rampell

A Critique of ‘The Critic’

Set in 1934 London, Sir Ian McKellen portrays the snootier-than-thou Jimmy Erskine, a theater critic for a daily newspaper who is cut in the mold of John Simon, a so-called “Hatchet Critic.”

I was eager to see “The Critic,” Anand Tucker’s screen adaptation of Anthony Quinn’s (no, not the actor, the English author) novel “Curtain Call,” because I’m a critic and there aren’t too many films featuring members of my profession as the protagonist. Of course, the fact that it stars the estimable Sir Ian McKellen (1998’s “Gods and Monsters,” “The Lord of the Rings” franchise), now 85, only whetted my appetite all the more to watch “The Critic.”

Set in 1934 London, McKellen portrays the snootier-than-thou Jimmy Erskine, a theater critic for a daily newspaper who is cut in the mold of John Simon, a so-called “Hatchet Critic” who wrote (often scathingly) for decades for New York Magazine. After Simon’s 2019 death, Variety called him a “hater” and described “the quality that had made him a legend: his famous vitriol, the gleeful and reflexive nastiness that sloshed through the cartridge of his poison pen.” Like Simon, Erskine perceives himself to be the arbiter and guardian of taste, and his rapier-like pen wreaks terror across the West End, where a bad notice by Jimmy can cause a play to close shortly after the opening nights he is a perennial habitue of.

One particular actress Erskine disdains is the beautiful Nina Land (British actress Gemma Arterton, who played Strawberry Fields in the 2008 Bond movie “Quantum of Solace”). His regular panning of the aspiring actress’ performances especially disappoints her, as Erskine’s theater reviews had been what influenced her decision to become a thespian in the first place, and she yearns to get a thumb’s up from this preeminent critic.

I enjoyed “The Critic”’s first half hour or so most, as it focuses on London’s theater scene during the 1930s, as well as the world of legacy newspapers. Tucker’s direction during these sequences is atmospheric, moody and evokes those rarefied realms.

But all is not well: Erskine and other staff scribblers at the prestigious Daily Chronicle they scribe for are confronted in the movie with a dilemma all too familiar to today’s journalists: Cutbacks. Although for very different reasons—whereas contemporary reporters are faced with austerity measures, mergers, acquisitions and shutdowns due to the havoc the advent of the Internet has wrought upon print media, press baron David Brooke (Mark Strong of 2019’s 1917), who has inherited the revered London paper, must contend with economic constraints caused by the Great Depression. In addition to imposing budgetary restraints on his “star” critic, Brooke also orders the impertinent Erskine to tone down his vitriolic attacks—uh, I mean reviews.

The movie has a very contemporary subplot: “The Critic” critiques Oswald Mosley (Ross Armstrong), the wannabe Fuhrer of the British Union of Fascists and Hitlerian adherent. A devotee of the free press—or at least of free speech for himself—Erskine despises the English would-be Nazis. Further complicating matters, Jimmy is a barely closeted homosexual, which annoys Mosley’s minions and thugs. The critic’s outrageous, public sex-capades also rile his publisher, further prompting Brooke to exhort the reviewer his late father had hired decades ago to show restraint vis-à-vis his flamboyant private life.

After this is all set-up in “The Critic”’s first 20 or 30 minutes, what had seemed to be the movie’s premise shifts, and instead of being a look at theater reviewing, it becomes a completely different genre. “The Critic” turns into a thriller or whodunit of sorts, as Nina and Brooke become ensnared in an elaborate scheme and web the Machiavellian Erskine spins. His intricate machinations and manipulations are cleverly designed to maintain his status and high-living lifestyle, with dire consequences.

I was disappointed that a relatively rare look at my profession veered off into all-too-familiar Agatha Christie territory, although to be fair, the web Erskine weaves does stay mostly within the realms of the theater and newspaper worlds. And of course, “The Critic” has first rate acting by McKellen and other members of the cast, including Lesley Manville (who was nominated for Best Supporting Actress for 2017’s “Phantom Thread” and co-starred in the 2019-2023 British TV series “World on Fire”) as Annabel Land, Nina’s worried mother. The movie has a gay subtext, as well as racial vibe, with part Brazilian thesp Alfred Enoch (of the “Harry Potter” film franchise) portraying Jimmy’s assistant Tom Turner, who has critical aspirations of his own…

Over the decades, there have been a few other productions about critics, including: In the 1941 screwball comedy “The Man Who Came to Dinner” Monty Woolley starred opposite Bette Davis and Jimmy Durante as theater reviewer Sheridan Whiteside. David Niven reviews plays in 1960’s “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” with Doris Day. Bob Hope portrayed a Broadway reviewer in 1963’s “Critic’s Choice,” co-starring Lucille Ball. 1988’s “Mystic Pizza” portrayed a food critic character who has a small but pivotal role. From 1996-2001, Jon Lovitz provided the voice for the title character in an animated comedic TV series, likewise monikered “The Critic.” And Rob Garver’s 2018 documentary chronicled The New Yorker’s renowned film critic ii “What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael.”

The Critic is being theatrically released nationwide Sept. 13.

Ed Rampell is a film historian and critic based in Los Angeles. Rampell is the author of “Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States” and he co-authored “The Hawaii Movie and Television Book,” now in its third edition. This review originally appeared at HollywoodProgressive.com.

From The Progressive Populist, October 1, 2024

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