Ian McKellen is a Utterly Catty Delight in 'The Critic' Trailer
Alfred Enoch as Tom Turner and Ian McKellen as Jimmy Erskine in 'The Critic'
Lionsgate
It made headlines in June 2024 when Sir Ian McKellen fell off the edge of the stage toward the end of one of his final four-hour performances of The Player King, a retelling of Shakespeare's Henry IV plays as a single show. The actor, who is in the latter half of his 80s, was rushed to the hospital but was deemed in good condition, though he canceled his final performances to focus on recovery for the planned tour to follow. While it would have been a legendary way to end his career, it was also a reminder of how little time fans have left with one of the theater's living legends and why his final films like The Critic are essential not to miss.
McKellen isn't just a living legend of the stage but of LGBTQ+ rights, coming out publicly in 1988, at the height of the AIDS crisis and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher's proposed decriminalization of homosexuality. Since then, he's made playing queer characters a significant part of his career, and The Critic is no exception. Based on the novel by Anthony Quinn, Curtain Call, the film is a mystery thriller in which McKellen's character, theater critic Jimmy Erskine, is driven to scheming plots within plots to keep himself one step ahead of those who would destroy him and his career simply for being gay.
McKellen, of course, is firing on all cylinders here, firing off more catty one-liners per minute than Downton Abbey's Dowager Countess after hitting the snuff box.
Here's the film's synopsis:
The year is 1936. As the new steward of London’s Chronicle, David Brooke seeks to revive the financially troubled daily as the country’s most-read family paper. In the firing line is long-time theatre critic Jimmy Erksine, whose extravagant prose and personal “proclivities” are distasteful to David. Jimmy has a lot to lose as an elderly gay man in a culture and legal system deeply hostile to homosexuality. Yet he cannot resist writing the flamboyantly merciless critiques that are his trademark.
Actor Nina Land — for whom the married David secretly carries a torch — is a regular target for Jimmy’s most withering remarks. As pressure to appease his employer mounts, Jimmy concocts a plot to entrap both David and Nina — herself secretly in love with a married painter, Stephen Wyley. But with the Blackshirts taking to the streets amid anti-queer police raids, Jimmy may be grossly overestimating his ability to emerge from his elaborate scheme unscathed.
McKellen fronts an all-star ensemble, co-starring alongside Gemma Arterton (Funny Woman) as Nina Land, Mark Strong (Sherlock Holmes) as David Brooke, and Ben Barnes (Shadow & Bone) as Stephen Wyley. The film also features appearances by other British A-list favorites including Romola Garai (Scoop), Lesley Manville (Moonflower Murders), Alfred Enoch (The Couple Next Door), Claire Skinner (McDonald & Dodds), and Rebecca Gethings (Call the Midwife).
Directed by Anand Tucker and adapted by Patrick Marber, The Critic is executive-produced by Tucker, David Gilbery, Naomi George, Mark Gordon, Harry White, and Tom Butterfield.
The Critic will land in theaters on Friday, September 13, 2024.
