The Critic

Let´s go back to the year of 1993 when i was 16 years old. This was the year when i got interested in movie reviews through the movie review TV show known as Ronnys Rullar with Swedish film critic Ronny Svensson on Channel 5. Every single week i would watch every show where Ronny reviewed the latest cinema releases and also reviewed films he watched on exclusive film festivals such as Cannes Film Festival. Since i went a lot to the cinema during these years i would remember what ratings Ronny gave certain cinema releases and i would see if i agreed or disagreed on his rating score. I remember when he reviewed the 1994 sci fi action thriller Timecop with Jean-Claude Van Damme and actually gave the film a good rating while Swedish newspaper Expressen gave the film 1 out of 5 bees ( yes Expressen have always used bees as a rating tool ). It was nice to see Ronny Svensson appreciate what Timecop was trying to do, show a more serious side of Jean-Claude Van Damme actually trying to act. It was during the 90´s i started writing reviews myself by using paper and pencil and i would let my mother Lena read some of them and it was actually Swedish film critic Ronny Svensson who inspired me to start writing reviews. So when i started this movie review blog back in 2011 i always had Ronny Svensson in my mind as an inspiration for doing this blog and i actually met him in person in 2014 at the world premiere of The Expendables 3 in Stockholm. That was a big day for me personally and i told him he inspired me to write and i could tell that made him happy. So after many years of writing reviews im still here as a film critic and i have learned several things. It´s ok if not all people agree with you regarding your review, it´s not a personal attack on anyone if you don´t like each film it´s just an opinion. For the most part i try to see something positive in each film i review or at least try to find something positive to say. Of course i am always happy hearing from some people sometimes who really enjoyed my review, i always appreciate positive feedback. Speaking of film critics i have heard for some time about a thriller drama film telling the story of film critic Jimmie Erskine ( played by legendary actor Sir Ian McKellen ) in the British film The Critic. It´s not everyday we get to see a film telling a story of a film critic so the story surrounding this film fascinated me since i am a film critic myself and i was very curious to see if i would enjoy The Critic. Is this a must see during the Christmas holidays or is this unfortunately not as good as i was hoping it would be?

London theatre critic, Jimmie Erskine ( Sir Ian McKellen ), is very well respected at his job as the newspaper Daily Chronicle. After watching a theatre show and reviewing the performance of actress Nina Land ( Gemma Arterton ) in her latest theatre play The White Devil. Jimmie does not enjoy her performance and write a negative review that´s published in the newspaper. Nina take this very personal and confront Jimmie personally on the street as he tries to tell her how she needs to think differently, to be able to perform more powerful. The two of them start getting to know each other while Jimmie has to hide his homosexuality from the public. But the negative review forces Daily Chronicle owner David Brooke ( Mark Strong ) to end Jimmie´s review career from all the negative feedback, unless he changes his style of writing. Jimmie does take this seriously but he also see an oppurtunity to take advantage of Nina to save his own skin.

Even though i have enjoyed so many acting performances of Sir Ian McKelllen in the past i am so pleased that he actually made this film. Since this film tells a story regarding a critic and how one can make an impact writing reviews on theatre plays, that alone show you that they actually made an attempt to do a different kind of film than we are used to see. The Critic tries to give us different perspective from the eyes of a theatre critic while we also get a glimpse of how he deals with people who disagree with his reviews. I can only imagine how professional critics wil be treated sometimes just because they didn´t like a theatre play, a musical or a film. I think this film does a really good job capturing both the audience opinion while we clearly see where critic Jimmie Eskine stand and he doesn´t like being silenced for his opinion. But this film also dives in how it was being gay in the 1930´s when this was considered to be criminal. Just imagine not being able to show openly who you truly love in public without being seen as disgusting. This is a very important detail that this film show in a realistic way while also showing that it´s ok for 2 men to love each other. Just because someone is gay doesn´t make them bad people, sometimes they have bigger hearts than you can imagine. The acting from legendary actor Ian McKellen is outstanding and his portrait of the critic Jimmie and the character becomes very fascinating with his strong personality. Much of the dialogue scenes from Ian lands so smoothly in this film that it feels like you can listen to him talking for hours. The twist later on in this film that Jimmie might not be such a nice man after all definetely makes the storyline more interesting. Actress Gemma Artertori ( who is worth checking out in The King´s Man ) gives a lovely performance as theatre actor Nina and i do feel she have great chemistry with the main character. The Critic may not only give us a powerful view into the world of a famous critic but also the flaws that even a critic may carry within himself. Director Anand Tucker have without a doubt given us one of the better films released this year. The Critic is a must see for us who appreciate true quality films.

Rating: DDDD