Mr Malcolm’s List Review

4 star feel good romantic comedy.

Mr Malcolm’s List is a 2022 period romantic comedy directed by Emma Holly Jones (her extremely well handled directorial debut) and written by Suzanne Allain, based on her own novel.

It is available to own on Blu-ray and DVD from 14th November 2022, courtesy of Dazzler Media.

“The biggest catch of the season in the year of our Lord 1818, was the honourable Jeremy Malcolm. Mr Malcolm was searching for a bride, but not just any bride and he wouldn’t be seduced by fine eyes or a flirtatious smile.”

Julia Thistlethwaite (Zawe Ashton – Fresh Meat, Blitz) is a young woman looking to secure herself a well to do husband. Following several unsuccesful seasons, she lands a date with the much sought after Mr. Malcolm (Sope Dirisu – The Colony, Sand Castle). However, she falls short of his expectations and he  fails to contact her again.

This leads to the circulation of a cruel caricature, humiliating Julia. Some digging by her cousin, Lord Cassidy (Oliver Jackson-Cohen – The Raven, The Invisible Man) reveals that Mr. Malcolm has a list by which he judges prospective brides, and she was found wanting for a lack of political knowledge, as well as excessive blinking.

This annoys Julia, who hatches a plan to get revenge on Mr. Malcolm. She calls on schoolfriend Selina (Freida Pinto – Immortals, Slumdog Millionaire) to help her out. Selina has just lost her employer, so she moves to London to help her friend.

The idea is to use Mr. Malcolm’s list against him, make him believe Selina ticks every item and then reveal that she has a list to which he does not measure up. An intriguing plan, but of course such things never go as expected.

“Well Cassie. If you had been paying the least bit of attention you would have realised, I already explained to Selina that there should be no artificiality in her behaviour when she pretends an attraction to Mr. Malcolm.”

Mr. Malcolm’s list is an extremely enjoyable watch. Although it doesn’t bring anything particularly new to the table it’s heart warming, gentle entertainment. There are lots of fancy period costumes and all the expected frills.

It is a diversely cast film, with lots of acting talent on display and a well written script full of comedy as well as moments of romance. There are no surprises to be had here, no last minute twists, but in this case that is a really good thing, I found I genuinely wanted it to go they way I thought it would, and it did.

Very pleasnt fluff, a lovely way to spend an afternoon and well worth adding to your collection

Dazzler Media presents Mr. Malcolm’s List on Blu-ray and DVD from 14th November