Mr Malcolm’s List film review — Zawe Ashton and Freida Pinto in pallid reshuffle of Austen

Much like hit Netflix series Bridgerton, this romantic feature unfolds in a world that resembles Regency England, with Empire-waisted gowns and much Jane Austen-inspired ado about who marries whom, but with an ethnically diverse ensemble. As with the colour-blind casting seen often in theatre, the guiding concern seems to have been who would be best for the part, regardless of their appearance. So Naoko Mori, an actor of Japanese descent, plays the mother of Zawe Ashton, an actor of English and Ugandan descent. And no, it’s not just a Bridgerton rip-off — the short film this is based on (which was made to raise funds for the feature) came out before the Netflix show.

The casting inclusivity means that Mr Malcolm’s List can assemble an impressive team of much buzzed-about young performers that includes not just Ashton but Sope Dirisu (His House), Freida Pinto (Slumdog Millionaire) and Theo James (TV’s The Time Traveler’s Wife) to play the other three corners of a love quadrangle. What a shame the script, adapted by Suzanne Allain from her own novel, is such a pallid reshuffle of Austenian conceits. There’s the high-born man and lower-upper-middle-class lady romance troubled by misunderstanding that occupies Dirisu’s eponymous Mr Malcolm and Pinto’s Selina, while Ashton is an Emma-like meddlesome heiress, hoisted by her own petard of vanity and vengeance.

Sadly, Allain and director Emma Holly Jones can’t channel Austen’s wit or her granular attention to social mores and morals. Also, if a period drama has no real understanding of the period it’s set in, isn’t it just playing around with pretty costumes and nice sets? At least it has macaron-hued frocks and neoclassical architecture (mostly Irish locations) in enough abundance to distract from niggling concerns about how colonialism and industrialisation really fit into this world.

★★☆☆☆

In UK cinemas from August 26