Jimmy Erskine: Last News

The Critic, from Shopgirl director Anand Tucker.With a script from Notes On A Scandal‘s Patrick Marber, the film finds the 85-year-old legend playing Jimmy Erskine, a revered and feared London theater critic at odds with his newspaper’s new ownership which prefers what they print to be more family—and fascist—friendly.Like McKellen, Jimmy is gay, but the critic only shares this with a few of his closest confidantes—it’s the ’30s, after all, and being caught with another man could get him thrown in jail. When he’s forced to fight for his livelihood, Jimmy resorts to doing what he does best: drafting up a tangled scheme that will involve his secret lover (Alfred Enoch), a beleaguered actress (Gemma Arterton), her secret lover (Ben Barnes), her mother (Lesley Manville), and the paper’s prickly editor (Mark Strong).Needless to say, it’s one of the venerated performer’s juiciest screen roles in quite a few years.