The Critic (2023)

The Critic, a 2023 British period thriller, was directed by Anand Tucker and written by Patrick Marber. It attracted a massive RCC audience. Perhaps it was the pulling power of the always brilliant Ian McKellen, whom we celebrated tonight. 

Young filmmaker Ben Gough’s special message to us about his remarkable experience working with Ian McKellen, really charmed us all. It always makes such a difference to our audience to hear a personalised message. For many of us, Ben’s memories of making How A Kite Flies was the highlight of the evening.

Leaving Ian McKellen’s evil waspish performance aside and his fascinating craggy face, this was a film that we were….critical about. We didn’t like the “Hovis advert” golden lighting and hoped for something grittier and more in film noir style. We thought the plot was strange and that the film’s pacing was “off”. 

This was an uneven film, which some of us found “overplayed and tedious.”  Potentially interesting themes such as Mosley, fascism, the treatment of gay people and being black in the 1930s, weren’t developed enough.

On the other hand, some of us appreciated the costumes, cars and general décor. A particular lampshade was….er….a highlight for some of us.  A desire to search ebay for household items is usually a hint that the film isn’t grabbing our attention to the fullest.

We liked Romola Garai and particularly Lesley Manville – what sensitive and expressive acting - but they were given too little screen time. Some of us felt that actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton) was guilty too. She had affairs with married men and had a willingness to participate in treacherous activities, just to get positive reviews in a newspaper.

Members of the group did share impressions of the newspaper world in the past. We felt that some major institutions did include entitled unsavoury and eccentric characters, whom we now perceive differently, of course.

To summarise, we can use the words of one of our participants, which damned the film with faint praise. “It was not a waste of my time.”

Anne