The Critic begins with a voice-over in Ian McKellen’s gravelly yet sonorous tones. After defining the term ‘critic’ (‘judge’, according to its Latin and Greek etymology), he declares, ‘The drama critic is feared and reviled for the judgement he must bring, but the truth is imperative, the critic must be cold and perfectly alone. Only the greats are remembered.’ This grandiose statement indicates just how seriously McKellen’s character, theatre critic Jimmy Erskine, takes his craft. Erskine’s megalomaniacal attachment to his vocation, the essence of his identity, is the force that drives him to commit many egregious deeds in this film.