Ian McKellen in “The Critic” 2023.

Director Anand Tucker and writer Patrick Marber’s fun and devilish film is set in London in the early World War II bad old times.

MOVIE INFO

“THE CRITIC”
Period Drama, Crime, Drama, Mystery, Thriller
In 1930s London, a powerful theatre critic, threatened by the new owner of the newspaper where he works, enlists a young actress to help him prevent his boss from firing him.
Length: 95 minutes
Rating: Severe profanity, moderate alcohol, drugs, smoking, and frightening and intense scenes, with mild sex, nudity, violence and gore
Director: Anand Tucker
Writers: Patrick Marber, Anthony Quinn
Stars: Gemma Arterton, Ian McKellen, Lesley Manville

Tucker and David Higgs’ camera take us down the foggy and lamp-lit streets of London’s theater district.

It’s here that something wicked comes. This will be Jimmy Erskine. The great English classical actor Ian McKellen is Jimmy, an old-school gentleman who, at the outset of England’s dark pre-war years when Hitler is across the channel, is one of the aging and fading but still powerful London theater critics.

Jimmy, wobbling on the edge of those times, suited in British woolens and topped with a woolen fedora and impeccable manners, walks the streets of the theater district and brushes aside home-bound commoners with a flick of his black umbrella.

Yes, not even the deft Clifton Webb could do Jimmy as deliciously as Sir Ian.

Slightly openly gay, and just an inch or two out of the closet in those edgy days, Jimmy lives with his loyal secretary, Tom (Alfred Enoch), and we won’t go into that for a while.

As the ’30s begin to change, Jimmy has to come up with a plan to escape being tossed aside from his perch on the Daily Chronicle when the owner of the paper dies and his son David (Mark Strong) takes over, eager to make changes and blow away the dust like Jimmy, who embarrassingly has just been arrested on a public indecency charge.

Then Jimmy comes upon a pawn that he can use to move across the board. She is a new young actress named Nina Land (Gemma Arterton), whose career has stalled because of Jimmy’s criticisms.

A deal is made: if she will scratch Jimmy’s back, he will scratch hers with glowing reviews.

The deal involves blackmail without speaking that word. Don’t get excited. It’s a long walk down a few alleys and hallways.

David has been eyeing Nina from the front-row seats for some time, but he has a proper wife and a new prominent position to protect. Still, he leers from behind his program.

Here’s where our Ian of the Shakespearean stage gets catty and cute. He and Nina drink and come up with a plan. This is where the “scratching of backs” begins. Jimmy carefully tosses bait attached to silken words, and draws the naive Nina to “star” in a drama of unexpected darkness where evil lives.

There are scenes scattered about that draw us into wanting to read the book that Marber drew his blood from, “Curtain Call” by Anthony Quinn (not the film actor).

Sir Ian McKellen, who has cast his spell from too many classics to list (notably “Lord of the Rings”), appears, after all these years, to be slightly walking through the work. But then he walks so gracefully that it’s nice to watch.

Mark Strong (Marco Giuseppe Salussolia is his real name. Aren’t we surprised?), who is well-known for playing spies and is always fun to watch, plays the timid cheater beneath his gifts.

Gemma Arterton is as fresh as English linens and plays her freshness well. She’s been around in British TV and with luck, will do well.

Cinematographer David Higgs’ camera prowls the damp, foggy London streets and Jimmy’s cozy rooms dimly, on professional tiptoes.

Enjoy Sir Ian, and watch out for the dark.

“The Critic” opens Sept. 27 at Waterville’s Maine Film Center.

J.P. Devine of Waterville is a former stage and screen actor.