Wanting to maintain his authority, a renowned theatre critic uses and abuses his power, but not without dire consequences.
A dark tale of ambition and vanity. Despite its many qualities, The Critic is not an easy watch for many reasons. Posh vernacular, slow pace, and undefined target audience are just a few. The film takes a significant amount of time to establish its purpose, which can easily make one lose interest in what is happening. That is understood, but writers Patrick Marber and Anthony Quinn and director Anand Tucker open the gates into a world of lies, power, abuse, deceit, manipulation, ambition, and vanity, where everything goes.
Personally, I very much enjoyed it because, on top of the aforementioned, Sir Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Alfred Enoch, Ben Barnes, Mark Strong, Romola Garai, Lesley Manville and the rest of the cast gave powerful performances. While this might not be enough for some, I still recommend it because the manipulative world of art and its industry still exists, perpetuating the scandals and black pages of its history.
The Critic started and ended as a different film, and Lionsgate, the distribution company behind it, ordered re-shoots and re-edits. We don’t know what kind of a film it was at first. But maybe that explains the undefined target audience and why the film’s first part is a different genre from the second. That takes us back to questions such as: Who really makes the film, and who are films made for?
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