Critic Reviews
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A solid, if inevitably insufficient, portrait of a still-enigmatic Hollywood legend. It doesn’t completely get under Cary Grant’s skin — but Jason Isaacs’ thoughtful, transformative performance makes it worth the attempt.
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Jason Isaacs is well cast as Grant, even if he does look more like Bob Monkhouse. The role doesn’t require him to play the charming, public face of Grant, only the insecure, sorrowful side. Laura Aikman looks uncannily like Cannon and fizzes with youthful energy. .... The main weakness is the drama’s attempts to recreate Hollywood on an ITV budget.
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It gives you exactly enough good stuff to make you wish the rest of the series was better, or at least more insightful.
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For the most part, Archie is hesitant in its probing and lacking in both depth and nuance, merely sketching out the most obvious beats of Grant’s story.
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Fans of Grant may struggle to recognise the actor in the haunted, faltering figure Isaac inhabits. I suppose this is the point, to a large extent. But Isaacs’ disarmingly British version of Archie never really feels real, either. This may be down to the writing – laboured jokes and trite drama mark this as a script the real Grant would have surely scrapheaped.