''Mr. Malcolm's List'' is a 2022

historical drama A historical drama (also period drama, period piece or just period) is a dramatic work set in the past, usually used in the context of film and television, which presents history, historical events and characters with varying degrees of fiction s ...

film directed by Emma Holly Jones and written by Suzanne Allain, based on her novel of the same name. It stars

Freida Pinto Freida Selena Pinto (born 18 October 1984) is an Indian actress who has appeared mainly in American and British films. Born and raised in Mumbai, Maharashtra, she resolved at a young age to become an actress. As a student at St. Xavier's Colle ...

Sope Dirisu Sope Dirisu (, ; born 1991) is an English actor. He made his film debut in 2016 with '' Sand Castle'', ''Criminal'', and '' The Huntsman: Winter's War''. Since 2020, he has starred as Elliot Carter / Finch in the Sky Atlantic series '' Gangs of ...

Oliver Jackson-Cohen Oliver Mansour Jackson-Cohen (born 24 October 1986) is an English actor. He is known for his roles in the Netflix horror television series '' The Haunting of Hill House'' (2018) and '' The Haunting of Bly Manor'' (2020), as well as for his role ...

, Ashley Park, Zawe Ashton, and

Theo James Theodore Peter James Kinnaird Taptiklis (born 16 December 1984) is an English actor. He gained recognition for playing Tobias Eaton in '' The Divergent Series'' film trilogy (2014–2016). He has starred in the horror films '' Underworld: Awak ...

. The film follows a young woman in 1800s

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

who helps her friend get revenge on a suitor who rejected her for failing to meet a requirement on his list of qualifications for a bride. The film was released in the United States and Canada on July 1, 2022, and later in the United Kingdom and Ireland on August 26.

Plot

The beautiful Julia Thistlewaite attends the opera with the most eligible bachelor of the season, Mr. Jeremy Malcolm. After she fails to impress him, she is widely mocked in a

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

. Julia employs her cousin, the feckless Lord Cassidy, to see what she has done to offend Mr. Malcolm. Malcolm reveals to Cassidy that he has a list of requirements for a wife that Julia did not meet. Cassidy lets this slip to Julia, who is offended. Julia decides to invite her friend, Selina Dalton, to London to try and exact revenge on Mr. Malcolm, training her reluctant friend to act as the perfect potential bride. On the night she is to meet Malcolm, Selina accidentally runs into him in the

orangery An orangery or orangerie is a room or dedicated building, historically where orange and other fruit trees are protected during the winter, as a large form of greenhouse or conservatory. In the modern day an orangery could refer to either ...

. There, the two debate philosophy and are immediately attracted to one another. When they are formally introduced, Malcolm invites Selina to the museum with him, where he pleads his case that he and Julia had a very weak connection. While there, the two run into Captain Ossery, with whom Selina was previously acquainted, having served as his aunt's companion in Bath. The following day, Ossery invites Selina to walk with him and formally announces his intention to court her, as his aunt's final letter to him expresses her desire for the two of them to be matched. Malcolm does not stop his pursuit of Selina, who, aided by Julia's machinations, continues to present as his perfect woman. When Julia and Selina accidentally run into Selina's vulgar cousin, Gertie Covington, Julia claims her as her relation. Malcolm later privately tells Selina he is glad she is not related to someone so crass, and Selina is upset by the news. When Malcolm learns the truth, he privately apologizes to Selina and even extends an invitation to Gertie to join him and the rest of the party at his country estate, where he intends to propose to Selina. Julia decides that Malcolm is suitably in love with Selina and decides it is time for her to reject him. However, Selina reveals she no longer wants to proceed with the plan, as she believes Malcolm is honourable and has no intention of hurting Julia. At a masquerade, where Malcolm plans to propose to Selina, Julia has her maid call Selina away and lock her in a room before sending a message to Malcolm to meet him in secret, posing as Selina. When Malcolm proposes, Julia rejects him and runs away, only to be immediately found out by Selina, Malcolm, and Ossery. She reveals Malcolm's rejection still hurts her and that Selina was a participant in her scheme, causing Malcolm to become upset and reject Selina as well. The following day, a guilt-ridden Julia tries another scheme to reunite Malcolm and Selina but is dissuaded by Ossery, who confesses he has fallen in love with her. Malcolm and Selina later find themselves alone in the garden, and Malcolm accuses Selina of trying to trap him in an engagement. Infuriated, she wishes him luck with his list. After Julia apologizes, Selina decides to leave for home. As she does, Malcolm's mother blames her son for Selina's departure, revealing that she was the one who plotted to leave the two alone in the garden. Malcolm chases after Selina and gives her a new list of everything he is looking for in a wife, the sole line reading "Selina Dalton."

Cast

as Selina Dalton *

as Mr. Jeremy Malcolm *

as Lord Cassidy * Ashley Park as Gertie Covington * Zawe Ashton as Julia Thistlewaite *

as Captain Henry Ossery * Divian Ladwa as John * Naoko Mori as Mrs. Thistlewaite * Sophie Vavasseur as Lady Gwyneth Amberton * Sianad Gregory as Molly * Doña Croll as Lady Kilbourne * Paul Tylak as Mr. Dalton * Dawn Bradfield as Mrs. Dalton

Production

Suzanne Allain self-published her novel ''Mr. Malcolm's List'' in 2009 and subsequently adapted it into a script. The script was discovered by filmmaker Emma Holly Jones when The Black List did a podcast script reading of the highly rated script submitted through the website in 2015. Jones pursued the rights and then brought on producer Laura Rister and subsequently Laura Lewis to produce the feature film adaptation. The team decided to make a short film, as an overture to the feature version and partnered with Vice Studios'

Refinery29 Refinery29 (R29) is an American multinational digital media and entertainment website focused on young women. It is owned by Sundial Media Group. History Justin Stefano, Philippe von Borries, Piera Gelardi, and Christene Barberich co-founded Ref ...

and their Shatterbox short film series for female filmmakers to make the short. It was shot in October 2018 in London and was released online on February 14, 2019, and to date, it has had over 2 million views. It starred

Gemma Chan Gemma Chan (born 29 November 1982) is an English actress. A graduate of Worcester College, Oxford, Chan began acting during the late 2000s, making her film debut in 2009. She rose to attention with her leading role in the Channel 4 science fiction ...

, and

. Based on its success, Suzanne's novel was published in 2020 by Berkley Press, and the feature film was financed. The team partnered with producer Katie Holly and her Blinder Films to shoot in Ireland. Filming began in March 2021 in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

, with Zawe Ashton,

and Ashley Park joining the cast.

Bleecker Street Bleecker Street is an east–west street in Lower Manhattan, New York City. It is most famous today as a Greenwich Village nightlife, nightclub district. The street connects a neighborhood popular today for music venues and comedy as well as a ...

acquired the US distribution rights to the film, while

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

acquired the international distribution rights.

Release

The film was released on July 1, 2022, in the United States by

and in Canada by levelFILM and was later released in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2022, by Vertigo Releasing.

released the film internationally. The film was released to VOD platforms on July 21, 2022, by Bleecker Street, followed by a

Blu-ray Blu-ray (Blu-ray Disc or BD) is a digital optical disc data storage format designed to supersede the DVD format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released worldwide on June 20, 2006, capable of storing several hours of high-defin ...

and

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for digital video disc or digital versatile disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any ki ...

release on August 23, 2022.

Reception

Box office

''Mr. Malcolm's List'' grossed $1.9 million in North America and $138,789 in other territories for a worldwide total of $2 million. In the United States and Canada, the film made $1 million over the four-day

Independence Day An independence day is an annual event memorialization, commemorating the anniversary of a nation's independence or Sovereign state, statehood, usually after ceasing to be a group or part of another nation or state, or after the end of a milit ...

weekend, finishing seventh. The film dropped out of the top nine at the box office in its second weekend, grossing $255,116 with a $241 average revenue.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, 82% of 112 reviews are positive, with an average rating of 6.5/10. The critical consensus reads, "''Mr. Malcolm's List'' references countless Regency romps without particularly distinguishing itself from the pack, but it gently entertains as a diversely-cast ode to Jane Austen's works. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has an average score of 65 out of 100 based on 31 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews."

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mister Malcolm's List 2022 romantic drama films 2020s American films 2020s British films 2020s English-language films 2020s historical drama films 2020s historical romance films American historical drama films American historical romance films British historical drama films British historical romance films American romantic drama films British romantic drama films Films based on American novels Films based on romance novels Films scored by Amelia Warner Films set in London Films shot in Ireland Irish historical drama films Irish romantic drama films English-language historical drama films English-language romantic drama films English-language historical romance films