The Critic review: It’s Agatha Christie on steroids (and McKellen’s magnificent), writes BRIAN VINER
The Critic (111 min)
Speak No Evil (110 min)
Like all great actors, Sir Ian McKellen has come in for a fair share of criticism on stage over the years, but as a poacher turned gamekeeper, and for a number of other reasons, The Critic is a feast for the eyes.
McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, an influential drama critic for The Daily Chronicle.
The period is set in the 1930s, when people would go to the theatre in the West End in full dress. In the East End, however, a different dress code applies, namely the Blackshirts of Sir Oswald Mosley.
Erskine is a potential target for them, a promiscuous homosexual man who is not averse to fleeting sexual encounters in the park with ‘rough types’ and who also walks the streets arm in arm with his mixed-race secretary, Tom (Alfred Enoch).
Erskine’s ‘proclivities’ are a source of embarrassment to his boss, Viscount Brooke (Mark Strong), who has recently succeeded his late father as owner of the Chronicle and is keen to cash in on the market dominance of the all-powerful Ny Breaking.
Like all great actors, Sir Ian McKellen (pictured) has received some waspish theatre reviews over the years, but as a poacher turned gamekeeper and for a number of other reasons, The Critic is a joy to read.
By contrast, everyone in the ensemble cast of Speak No Evil, a slick remake of the 2022 Danish thriller of the same name, deserves equal praise, along with writer-director James Watkins (pictured, lead actor James McAvoy)
That is the background. In the foreground, a new production of the Jacobean play The White Devil has opened, starring Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), whose sensual beauty never fails to move Erskine.
He thinks she’s a ham and gives her a stinking review. She confronts him on the street one night and a sort of relationship develops, during which he confesses that he himself was briefly an actor – ‘my highlight was Laertes, in Dundee’ – and they both see ways in which their careers could benefit from it.
Erskine has rarely had to worry about his career. Yet he has failed to conduct his sex life discreetly, and Brooke, a considerable introvert but already eager to oust the old guard, has offered him his resignation.
From then on the drama ramps up to include snobbery, infidelity, unrequited love, blackmail, suicide and murder. It becomes the kind of over-the-top story you can easily imagine Erskine in a black suit on stage.
Besides the fact that we know very well who did it and how, it’s Agatha Christie on steroids.
The Critic is in fact a (loosely translated) film adaptation by Patrick Marber of Anthony Quinn’s excellent 2015 novel Curtain Call.
Marber is very good at spite (he also wrote the brilliant 2006 film Notes on a Scandal ) and some of the dialogue is cherishably catty. But most cherishable of all is McKellen’s lead performance.
Every huff and puff, every snort and mumble, every tap and grimace contributes to his perfect portrayal of this unscrupulous old man, desperately trying to hold on to his social and professional status, regardless of who may be the collateral damage.
McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, an extremely influential drama critic for The Daily Chronicle, a promiscuous gay man who is not averse to casual sexual encounters in the park with ‘rough trade’, who also walks the streets arm in arm with his mixed-race secretary, Tom (Alfred Enoch, pictured)
In the foreground, a new production of the Jacobean play The White Devil has premiered, starring Nina Land (Gemma Arterton, pictured), whose sensual beauty Erskine is not remotely moved by
Anand Tucker directs with deftness, the period detail is meticulous, and the supporting cast is stellar, including Lesley Manville as Nina’s meddling mother and Romola Garai as Brooke’s imperious daughter. But the film is McKellen’s.
By contrast, everyone in the cast of Speak No Evil, a slick remake of the 2022 Danish thriller of the same name, deserves equal praise, along with writer-director James Watkins.
We begin in Tuscany, where, in a posh hotel, a respectable American family – Ben (Scoot McNairy), Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and their 11-year-old daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) – befriend the extroverted, dolled-up Englishman Paddy (James McAvoy), his wife Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) and their son Ant (Dan Hough).
Ant has communication problems, probably because he was born with a short tongue. This is one of those movies where nothing seems to add up and we know it from the beginning, but we are still taken on an increasingly exciting ride.
The Americans live in London, and when they all get back to England, they visit their new friends at their home in the West Country. There, their hosts seem increasingly eccentric, or downright strange, or downright crazy.
There is a slight humorous undertone, as if gas is escaping somewhere, even if you don’t know exactly where. There are also a few undeniably ironic lines – ‘our standard is not their standard!’ – about the perceived differences between Americans and Brits.
There’s also a soft moral to this story, which ultimately goes quite off the rails: just like the green liqueur that tasted so good on a tan, friendships during the holidays aren’t always positive.
From then on the drama ramps up to include snobbery, infidelity, unrequited love, blackmail, suicide and murder. It becomes the kind of rather over-the-top story you might easily imagine seeing a black-clad Erskine on stage.