The Critic ★★★

NO DOUBT Ian McKellan enjoyed playing his character in the British period drama The Critic.

We are in London, 1934, and Jimmy Erskine is the long-standing theatre critic for The Daily Chronicle newspaper.

Erskine is a knowledgeable but acerbic reviewer who feels he is entitled to destroy any production or performer who fails to live up to his lofty standards.

His well-written, vitriolic takedowns are renowned through the industry and woebetide anyone who challenges this authority.

The man who does mount a challenge is Viscount David Brooke (Mark Strong) who takes over running the paper’s after the death of his father.

Brooke dislikes Erskine’s style and instructs him to tone it down.

Erskine of course ignores the warning and turns his sights on a new production featuring young actress Nina Land (Gemma Arterton).

Erskine discovers the married Viscount Brooke is secretly infatuated with Nina, but doubles down on his criticism, leading to a battle of wills between the two men that escalates to blackmail and death.

The entertaining script, by Patrick Maber adapting a 2015 novel by Anthony Quinn, keeps up a cracking pace and provides McKellan with some memorable lines. It’s worth watching for these and his performance alone.

Watched at the cinema.