Rent The Critic (2023)

Slow, Stagey, Flat and Unfocused Loose Adaptation of a London Theatreland Novel set in 1934 - The Critic review by PV

Hmmm, although this is just 90 minutes, it feels much longer. It seems slow, somehow, just very flat - and the genres seem mixed and confused. Is it a romance? A murder mystery? A biopic? The focus is blurred.

This is from a novel called Curtain Call - I have not read it but the synopsis online is quite different to the very unlikely story we see here. I did not really believe in the characters, not the critic and what he does, or the actress, or the newspaper tycoon, or his daughter and her husband. The 1934 art deco designs are fab though.

I also wonder if, in the novel, the partner is 'of colour' (remember there were just 6000 black people in the UK in 1939, of 44 millon population) and this is set in 1934. The stench of boxticking thus hangs over it all, especially with the random minor inclusion of the British Union of Fascists - an inclusion which pads the play out but which leads nowhere.

I'd recommend watching the wonderful GODS AND MOSTERS, another film where Ian McK plays a theatrical confirmed bachelor called Jimmy...

2 stars. Theatre fans may well love it (I'd recommend watching the film CHAPLIN to them).

Black Comedy/Thriller Entertaining - Could Have Been Brilliant - The Critic review by GI

Ian McKellen is clearly in his element in this period thriller set in 1930s London where he plays Jimmy, a renowned yet odious theatre critic for a popular newspaper. He's built his reputation over 40 years and now enjoys being thoroughly cantankerous and able to enjoy the guilty and illegal delights of gay sex in the park often close to police arrest. His biggest pleasure seems to be is dishing out awful reviews of actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), whose confidence is fractured as a result. However when Jimmy finds his job on the line by his new boss (Mark Strong) he comes up with a nasty and devious plan to save himself using Nina as his tool. There's no doubt the talent on show here marks this film as something worth seeing. Arterton is superb easily holding her own against McKellen's villain aided by Strong, who is always good, and Alfred Enoch as Jimmy's assistant and lover, Romola Garai and Lesley Manville add to the great cast although both are sadly underused. The film starts as a quite funny black comedy but it eventually turns into a dark conspiracy thriller and in some ways this is a shame. McKellen's Jimmy is a thoroughly unpleasant character but at his most appealing when he's using his wit and intellect to deal with those around him, he's less of an appeal when he resorts to actions to survive. Overall an entertaining film and one worth checking out.