Mr. Malcolm’s List
Suzanne Allain adapts her own best-selling novel for the screen to add to the recent glut of colour-blind Regency romps.
Mr Malcolm's List first emerged as a novel in 2009 when it was self-published by its author Suzanne Allain. Despite that rather unpromising start, the book became hugely popular and established her career as a novelist. Hardly less surprisingly, Allain had ambitions to become a screenwriter too and here she is adapting her own novel for the cinema. Mr Malcolm's List is set in London and in Kent in the year 1818 and when writing it Allain was inspired by her love for the novels of Jane Austen. Her storyline does indeed echo the social manoeuvring and the romantic complications that are part and parcel of Austen's world but replicating and matching her is a challenge that can hardly be met (on screen Whit Stillman came nearest to it in 2016 with Love and Friendship but that was actually based on Austen’s novella Lady Susan). That being so, it is best to judge this film simply as a witty period romance with good production values and indeed as a commercial proposition it has plenty to recommend it.
The list of the title is one prepared by Mr Jeremy Malcolm (Sope Dirisu) in which he sets out the ten attributes that he is looking for in the woman he would wish to marry. It is the failure of Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton) to match up to that which sets the plot in motion. Resentful of the gossip in her circle when Mr Malcolm does not ask her out again following a visit to the opera, Julia plans her revenge. She calls on a childhood friend, Selena Dalton (Freida Pinto), and persuades her that Mr Malcolm deserves to be punished thus winning her agreement to take part in a plot that will put Mr Malcolm in his place. The idea is to bring Selena into Mr Malcolm's orbit where she will seek to persuade him that she has all the virtues that he has listed whereupon, having received his proposal of marriage, she will decline it and will claim that she too has a list but one which he has failed to meet.
Anyone familiar with romantic comedies of this kind whether or not readers of Jane Austen will readily anticipate that Selena and Mr Malcolm will fall in love but that her role in the plot against him will then emerge and threaten their union. Equally in keeping with this kind of material is the introduction here of significant additional figures including a military man (Theo James) who remembers Selena affectionately but may be drawn to Julia, an uncouth relative of Selina’s who is an embarrassment (Ashley Park) and a cousin of Julia’s who is drawn into assisting her (Oliver Jackson-Cohen).
Although Suzanne Allain is an American, her portrayal of 19th-century English society is adept and her dialogue is entertaining (there’s another comparison which cannot be matched but which is echoed in that the dialogue does sometimes make one think of Oscar Wilde – indeed there is an interview scene which, however brief, encourages one to compare Mr Malcolm's mother, Lady Kilbourne (Doña Croll,) with Lady Bracknell). Judged on the level of a popular piece of entertainment much in Mr Malcolm’s List is agreeable and the cast is a talented one. It should be said here that the film is modish in offering casting that is colour-blind and it works well. If Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019) could feel self-conscious in that respect because the characters created by Dickens are so firmly formed in our imaginations already, no such issue can arise here.
But, if Mr Malcolm's List offers good entertainment, it also has some weaker points too. The running length of almost two hours seems a bit excessive but the main drawbacks are twofold and they matter if the plot is to carry a measure of belief. First, Julia's behaviour, which gets worse before it gets better, is so sharp-edged and unpleasant that one questions if Theo James’s Captain Henry Ossory would ever be attracted to her and in addition one asks why Selena continues to remain her friend. Secondly - and more crucially unless this is a purely personal reaction - I found a lack of chemistry between Freida Pinto and Sope Dirisu. Individually each gives a good performance but for the romance underlying the comedy to work there needs to be a personal spark between the actors and here I did not sense that. Nevertheless, those who enjoy period tales of this kind are in many ways well served here. Whatever its shortcomings, Mr Malcolm's List has its own appeal.
MANSEL STIMPSON
Cast: Freida Pinto, Sope Dirisu, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Ashley Park, Zawe Ashton, Theo James, Doña Croll, Naoko Mori, Divian Ladwa, Paul Tylak, Siana Gregory, Dawn Bradfield, Gerry O’Brien, Aisling Doyle, Tia Ann Jain.
Dir Emma Holly Jones, Pro Laura Rister, Laura Lewis, Katie Holly and Emma Holly Jones, Screenplay Suzanne Allain from her novel, Ph Tony Miller, Pro Des Ray Ball, Ed Kate Hickey, Music Amelia Warner, Costumes Pam Downe.
Untitled Entertainment/Rebelle Media/Blinder Films/Holly Films/Dreamscape Productions/Ingenious Media/Universal Pictures-Vertigo Releasing.
118 mins. USA. 2022. US Rel: 1 July 2022. UK Rel: 26 August 2022. Cert. PG.