Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Stay informed with free updatesSimply sign up to the Film myFT Digest — delivered directly to your inbox.“I have a deadline!” cries Ian McKellen in The Critic, a sure-fire way to get the sympathy of a journalist. The title is literal. The film is indeed about a member of that sorry tribe. Still, if reviewing it feels meta, there is at least a distance of time. McKellen plays Jimmy Erskine, a grandmaster critic of the 1930s London theatre, whose pitiless adjectives strike fear through the West End. Put bluntly, he is a vicious bastard — but irresistible fun.The first stretch of the movie revels in McKellen, pinpoint precise and having a blast. One moment, there is demonic glee, the next a glowering huff as boardroom change at the fictional Daily Chronicle sets a question mark against his job. But director Anand Tucker smartly draws other moving parts into action. Gemma Arterton is a good actor playing a bad one, for whom Jimmy reserves particular bile. Always terrific, Lesley Manville is her mother, aiming for a pep talk. “You were very audible,” she offers brightly.Patrick Marber’s script can be a hall of mirrors. On-screen, we see Jimmy delighted by his own barbs. Off-camera, Marber is clearly relishing tossing red meat to McKellen. (“I wither and I effuse,” Erskine says of his professional role, a line delivered as only this actor could.) But star and writer also bring depth. With the curtain drawn back, we see the man behind the monster: a needy performer himself; queer in an age when queerness was criminal; an ardent champion of deserving talent; a 24-carat disappointed romantic. Just an awful bully as well.Even with this many quotable lines, it may be that only a critic would want the movie to be about the inner life of another one. Lucky then, that it changes shape into a tangled thriller, a dark and hearty period stew of love and lust, blackmail and betrayal. A different kind of fun, with Arterton and a stolid Mark Strong to the fore. That side of the film is deftly done. Still, I couldn’t help missing McKellen, and Erskine, every time they weren’t around. And how often can you say that about critics?★★★★☆In UK cinemas from September 13
