Starring: Ian McKellen, Gemma Arterton, Mark Strong, Ben Barnes and Lesley Manville
Distributor: Transmission Films
Runtime: 99 mins. Reviewed in Sep 2024
Reviewer: Peter W Sheehan
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This British film tells the story of a feared theatre critic. He does a critical review of an actress whose acting conflicts with his opinion, and he becomes heavily implicated in what follows.
The film is a period thriller and based on a 2015 novel, Curtain Call, by Anthony Quinn. The screenplay for the movie was written by Patrick Marber. McKellen plays an ageing, gay theatre critic, Jimmy Erskine, who is contemptuous of most people. He is arrogant, brutal and spiteful, and is a feared, powerful critic of the London theatre scene in the 1930s. He reviews for The Daily Chronicle, a politically conservative newspaper in pre-war London.
Erskine delights in destroying the reputation of actors and actresses who disappoint him; he loves to pan theatrical productions; and he gives a terrible review to the acting of Nina Land (Arterton), who is a young, struggling actress. Nina’s mother, Annabel (Manville), is worried. Meanwhile, (following the death of the paper’s founding proprietor) Erskine has a new boss in Viscount Brooke (Strong). Brooke is especially uncomfortable with Erskine’s nocturnal encounters with gay men in city parks, and he wants a family newspaper that doesn’t pander to Erskine’s proclivities.
Brooke is aware that his paper’s chief critic is a gay exhibitionist, and further conflict occurs when he learns that his son-in-law, a fashionable portrait painter, Stephen Wyley (Barnes), is sexually involved with Nina.
When Erskine gets sacked, the plot goes very dark. Erskine, under pressure, tries to get his job back by using Nina to ensnare Brooke, and lures her with promises that he will provide good theatre reviews for all her future acting performances. His scheming, however, leads to dire consequences that include suicide, murder and betrayal.
McKellen’s assured acting style rises above the heavy-handed plot. The film is visually striking. The cinematography is impressive, and camera lighting evocatively sets the mood for an impressive period thriller.
McKellen is eminently watchable for his putdowns, acting style, and attention-getting asides as a needy critic. The film is less successful in its critical analysis of 1930s London as a society trying to cope with fascism on the rise. McKellen’s reputation as an exceptional actor in roles that have been closely evaluated by multiple critics in the past, provides unusual interest.
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