Donald Clarkeon the unimporetance of the critic
Over the last week poor old Sex and the Cityhas been tugged hither and thither by critics with differing levels of tolerance for sexual innuendo and metropolitan snobbery.
Some think the film a modestly satisfying coda to a harmlessly decadent televisual trifle. Others (hem, hem) view it as a witless betrayal of feminism and a tacit acknowledgment that reactionary forces have overpowered the entertainment establishment.
Who cares? A staggering onslaught of secondary promotion has drowned out the whittering of the reviewers, and Sex and the Cityhas secured very healthy box-office takings.
We are well used to film companies finding ever more Machiavellian ways of marketing their products, but the furore surrounding Sex and the Citydemonstrates that, given a suitable film, magazines and TV shows require no encouragement to don the promotional tabard. "Get That Carrie Bradshaw Look for Less!" "Which One Are You: Sensitive, Prudish, Promiscuous or, erm, The Other One?" "Floss the Cattrall Way!" And so on.
All of which leads us - well, me - to wonder whether critics matter at all. I am, you understand, not asking whether they have any importance in the overall sociocultural environment. We all know that, after heart surgeons and fire fighters, film reviewers are the most universally treasured and respected professionals in modern society. That goes without saying. The question is whether they have any serious impact on a movie's takings.
A glance at the worldwide box-office chart for 2007 suggests that stinky reviews do little to stop the advance of blockbusters. The number-one film, which took close to a billion dollars, was the fairly poorly reviewed Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Other recipients of critical brickbats in the top 10 included Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Thirdand National Treasure: Book of Secrets. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, which did okay with the pundits, and Ratatouille, which got raves, appear at numbers two and six respectively, but Potter and Pixar are such secure brands they could survive the pelting of any amount of rotten fruit.
We have to go down to number 15 in the chart to discover a movie that may, perhaps, owe a significant degree of its success to strong reviews. Everyone loved Enchantedand it made a stirring $380 million worldwide. Mind you, that was still $18 million less than the sum taken in by Alvin and his reviled chipmunks.
Small films in which lesbian bartenders from Omaha find love with paraplegic chess hustlers do still rely on positive reviews to secure their place in the sun. Movies following giant octopuses as they consume Manhattan seem to do just fine without the five-star raves.
And yet. The appalling notices for Speed Racercertainly added to the general feeling that the film was a dud and contributed to its failure. Positive paragraphs on Iron Man, a huge hit, swelled that film's strong word-of-mouth.
Critics are members of the public too. They just happen to have louder voices.
