Welcome back to the blog readers. There is nothing I love more than a good drama film, as you probably could tell. But if there was one thing I could say I loved more than anything, it would have to be films set in the past. Getting a snapshot of what things could have been like tens and hundreds of years ago is so appealing to me. With that being said, I learned of this film's existence literally 20 minutes before I saw it so I had no expectations for it at all. So would my lack of expectation pay off? Stick around to find out.
The Critic was directed by Anand Tucker from a script by Patrick Marber, based on the book Curtain Call by Anthony Quinn. The film stars Sir Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes, Alfred Enoch, Romola Garai, and Lesley Manville. In the film, an aspiring stage actor finds herself in the middle of a dark conspiracy between the gay theater critic she has admired and his paper's editor, leading to drastic consequences for all parties involved.
Now as I stated in the introduction, I only learned about this film's existence 20 minutes before I saw the film, so it was pretty hard to have expectations for a film I literally knew nothing about. And the fact that this is a British film did no favors to the fact I knew nothing about this film. Plus I love Ian McKellen so that gave me a little hope. With that being said, I feel a bit mixed on this film as a whole. While the story is intriguing and the lead performances from McKellen and Gemma Arterton were fantastic, there is not much of any other substance in the film to make it intriguing enough to go back and watch it again.
Well, we first need to talk about the king. Sir Ian McKellen is one of the greats walking around today, and we recently learned that he does not plan on retiring anytime soon, so that will be great for cinephiles like myself. As for his performance in this film, I could not take my eyes off the screen whenever he was on it because he was downright magnetic and engaging. A legend of the stage and screen gives such a powerful and complex performance that leaves you stunned. I do not see a film that makes you hate one of his characters quite like this one.
The next performance I want to talk about is that of Gemma Arterton. I am not aware of her because I do not fancy British films all too much, but I did enjoy the hell out of her performance in The King's Man (2021). As the real protagonist of this film, her character, a stage actor looking for validation, is our gateway into this world. Arterton's performance is extremely passionate and speaks to the cinephile directly. I believe that her performance, while tragic and powerful, is also as complex and energetic as McKellen's performance was.
Next, I want to talk about the actual story of the film. Just like the poster of the film states: ambition seduces and power corrupts. And not only is this sentiment true in real life, it is also true in fiction as well. We would not be able to count on two hands how many instances of this we have seen in real life and in fiction. Just look at the United States and the situation with the 2024 presidential election. But in the sense of this film, we see a man who is at the heights and the lows of his influence and decides to take advantage of people who would benefit from his opinions and his influence. I do think the story is done well, but there is an issue that I do have with the film. Actually two.
The first issue I have with this film is that the pacing of the film is terrible for one that is only an hour and forty-one minutes in runtime. The events of the film really pick up about halfway into the aforementioned runtime, and the major plot events all stack on top of each other, not really giving the viewer enough time to breathe between them. One fix I would offer is to extend the runtime by about 15 to 20 minutes to really allow each plot point to marinate and have its room to breathe.
The final issue I have with this film is that the story, although done well, does not do as effective of a job as I would have liked. If you recall from a previous post, this is ultimately the same issue that I had with the film Afraid (2024). And I believe that most of that has to do with the writing of this film. I believe that this film borrows a little too much from one film I had a major problem with, and that film was White Noise (2023). The script was too intelligent for its own good, with profound line after profound line, which eventually became way too annoying for me to handle. Now this film does not do it as bad as White Noise, but it gave me the same feeling as that film did.
In conclusion, The Critic is a dark and brooding period piece that gives us one of Ian McKellen's finest performances yet and a story worth sinking your teeth into. Thank you all for reading, and I will see you for the next post.
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