Ian McKellen's Ferocious Performance Makes 'The Critic' Worth Watching

Certain performers are so good at their craft that it would be enjoyable to watch them do pretty much anything, including reading the phone book, as the old saying goes. A bit of cultural translation for the youth among us: Once, not so very long ago, we literally printed everyone's names and contact info in vast tomes that got delivered to your front door. As a thought exercise, picture your favorite actor reading nothing but a monotonous list of names and ten-digit numbers for three hours and see how much you still love them then. It's likely to be a vanishingly short list, but it's almost equally likely that, for many of us, the great Sir Ian McKellen will be among those on it. (Fun fact: I once watched him do this at a charity event and it was, predictably, great.)

McKellen, now in his mid-eighties, is a legend of stage and screen, whose most famous rules have included performing everything from Shakespeare to J.R.R. Tolkien. And while his latest film, The Critic, is unlikely to be remembered among his best, at this stage in his life and career, our allotment of future McKellen performances is rapidly dwindling and it's best to just embrace whatever we can get with both hands.

It helps that McKellen's performance is far and away the best part of The Critic, a ferocious, desperate turn as a ruthless theater reviewer willing to do anything to hold on to his small corner of power and influence. His character is deeply unlikeable, frequently cruel, and more than a bit unhinged, but McKellen somehow manages to imbue his relentless air of self-importance with shreds of genuine pathos. It's a portrayal that honestly deserves a better movie around it, but one that can still be enjoyed for its own sake, despite the film's larger narrative flaws.