MR MALCOM'S LIST — Fruitcake Enterprises

Directing: B
Acting: B
Writing: B
Cinematography: B+
Editing: B

Mr. Malcom’s List is basically Bridgerton in feature film form. It’s fine entertainment, pleasant enough if otherwise unremarkable, except for its similarly “color conscious” casting. I suppose in this case it might be more accurate to fall back on the “color blind casting” phrase, given that in this case, unlike Bridgerton, none of the characters comment on their ethnic differences.

I’m never against this sort of approach, although it’s inevitably distracting when placed squarely within the context of a deeply patriarchal Regency-era society which is afforded none of the same revisionist history. Why make the cast unrealistically diverse but make no change to the subjugation of women? Because then we wouldn’t get the same Jane Austen-lite period pieces we love, I guess. Not that it would be impossible to change this aspect of society and still tell basically the same story, about a spurned woman’s attempt at revenge.

I can’t find any source online as to whether the Suzanne Allain novel on which this film is based also featured principal characters of different races, as though they all lived in 19th-century England harmoniously. All I can speak to is the film, which clearly serves as a salve for people going through Bridgerton withdrawals. The story telling is incredibly similar, right down to the narration by an older woman. Mercifully, the voiceover narration here is used sparingly.

The spurned woman at the center of the story is Julia Thistlewaite (Zawe Ashton), a woman reaching a ripe old age of mid-twenties and apparently running the risk of becoming a spinster. She is taken to the opera by one very wealthy and very eligible Mr. Malcom (Sope Dìrísù), who doesn’t bother taking Julia out again after she responds to an intellectual question with ignorance, and somehow this gets around and results in Julie’s public humiliation. When Julia learns from her cousin Lord Cassidy (Oliver Jackson-Cohen) that she was rejected by Mr. Malcom due to not meeting his list of qualifications to be his bride—hence the film title—she is quite unproportionately indignant, and enlists the help of her childhood friend Selina (Freida Pinto) in exacting revenge: she will meet all of these qualifications, then reject him with her own list.

Where this is going it easy to see from virtually the first frames of the film, and to say Mr. Malcom’s List is packed of conventional contrivances is an understatement. Most significantly, though, I had a hard time with Julia’s cousin Cassidy, who is bizarrely subservient to Julia’s many bizarre demands. Then again, there’s a minor twist later revealing ulterior motives on his part as well, and it barely works.

The bottom line is that Mr. Malcom’s List is a period romance just like countless others, but employing a template that has long proved effective. I can’t deny that I was engaged from start to finish, and found myself modestly charmed by the performances across the board—with the possible exception of Julia, who is insufferably self-involved, and her romantic resolution in the end is arguably the most contrived of all. It says a lot about the rest of the movie that the rest of the movie basically makes up for this. This movie is just another pleasant diversion, and of course there are times when that’s all you’re looking for.

Overall: B