O Lucky Malcolm!

The first roughly forth minutes (up to Time After Time) of O Lucky Malcolm! are an excellent personal profile because space is given predominantly to McDowell himself, thanks to whose innate acting talent even well-known stories from filming (the inception of the dance scene in A Clockwork Orange) are made fresh again. The documentary then jumps forward some twenty years and much more space is suddenly given to long clips from (relatively bad) films and McDowell’s loved ones and collaborators. Though it’s pleasing that not everyone praises the actor to the heavens – they don’t conceal the fact that he isn’t easy to work with – but none of them is able to come up with any more valuable revelations. The film becomes more serious only later, toward the end, when McDowell exhibits obviously greater interest in recalling his empathy for the character of Evilenko. Unfortunately, the quality of the documentary is uneven, which is surprising for a film by Harlan, director of an excellent portrait of Stanley Kubrick, but McDowell remains as entertainingly ironic with respect to the world of show business as he is toward himself. 70% (17/01/2013)