TV-14 | 8 episodes | Historical Drama, Thriller | 2024
A term of house arrest normally does not entail such luxurious circumstances as a stay in Moscow’s exclusive Hotel Metropol. Of course, it was the only place a discerning gentleman and aristocrat like Count Alexander Ilyich Rostov would reserve when visiting the Russian capital. He expected that his final stay would culminate in a death sentence, but instead, he is consigned to the Metropol for the remainder of his days. Since the hotel often hosts elite Communist Party officials and international diplomats, his sentence gives him a unique perspective on Russian/Soviet history in creator Ben Vanstone’s eight-episode “A Gentleman in Moscow,” adapted from Amor Towles’s novel.
The Metropol staff is understandably shocked to see Count Rostov (Ewan McGregor) return, because trials of former aristocrats nearly always ended with executions. Rostov, henceforth no longer known as “Count,” was not at all contrite, freely admitting that he facilitated his beloved grandmother’s escape to the West. Yet he was spared, because an influential Communist Party member remembered a protest poem widely attributed to Rostov that became a minor revolutionary rallying call.
‘Friend’ and Foe
Nevertheless, Mindich is Rostov’s protector. In contrast, Osip Glebnikov (Johnny Harris), a former Red Army officer and now senior official with the Cheka (the forerunner of the KGB), is quite annoyed to see Rostov escape death. Glebnikov makes it clear that if Rostov sets one foot outside the Metropol, he will be immediately shot. Yet as Glebnikov periodically returns to harass the prisoner-guest, he realizes that the former nobleman can be helpful by teaching him the finer points of Russian culture so he can better relate to his more learned superiors.
Nevertheless, Glebnikov is more temperamentally and philosophically aligned with Stalin. Conversely, actress Anna Urbanova (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), a frequent Metropol guest, is one of Trotsky’s favorites. At this point, most Russians still assume that Trotsky will succeed Lenin, but viewers should know better. As a result, Urbanova will find herself on the wrong side of the Party power struggle, which will complicate Rostov’s efforts to court her.
Instead, during his early years of house arrest, Rostov finds unlikely companionship with Nina Kulikova (Alexa Goodall), a young girl who has free run of the Metropol. She also possesses a pass key, which allows her access to the picturesque hotel’s many secret passages. During their time together, Rostov becomes something like a favorite uncle to Kulikova, so it breaks his heart when the Soviet schools indoctrinate her formerly imaginative mind with Party propaganda.
Grand Crescendo
Mr. Towles’s novel was greatly inspired by (pre-Revolutionary) Russian literature, which is still somewhat reflected in the structure of Mr. Vanstone’s adaptation, co-written with Nessah Muthy.
The series starts out a bit slow but builds to several intermittent peaks of suspense before ending with a grandly elegiac crescendo. It contains elements of the sweeping family saga as well as tense espionage thrillers, but it incorporates very real and often terrible Soviet history.
The Stalinist purges clearly impact the Metropol as the hotel regularly hosts Freya (Camilla Beeput). The American journalist deliberately ignored the mass famine produced by the collectivization of agriculture; this character was clearly inspired by Walter Duranty of The New York Times.
Despite his slow-building romance with Urbanova, Rostov’s critical relationship is with Glebnikov, who, from his perspective, evolves from a hostile tormentor into a colleague with shared interests. In contrast, Glebnikov eventually considers Rostov a friend, or at least the closest substitute he will ever know.
Mr. Harris deserves awards consideration for his performance as Glebnikov, but he is unlikely to receive such attention for a role that exposes the ruthlessness of the early Soviet regime. It is a fascinating portrait of a monster who becomes self-aware, at least to an extent. There is a human side to Mr. Harris’s portrayal that does not exactly express remorse, but it ruefully recognizes the irony of his fate.
Soviet Calamity
Plus, Mr. Balogun and Jason Forbes powerfully amplify the heartbreaking calamity of the new Soviet system, playing Rostov’s boyhood friend Misha and Urbanova’s patron, Nachevko, the minister of culture fatefully allied with Trotsky. Both men (neither of whom look Russian at all) are betrayed and ultimately consumed by the communist ideology they so steadfastly championed.Reflecting its source novel, “A Gentleman in Moscow” often takes large temporal leaps forward. As a result, World War II is almost entirely skipped over. This might seem like a glaring omission to some viewers, but considering how the communist and subsequent Putin regimes have used a very stilted and selective narrative of “The Great Patriotic War” to justify their aggression, it may be just as well to forgo any further mythologizing.
Instead, the series celebrates Russia’s culture while mourning its ruinous politics and ill-starred history. Indeed, it does many things well. Highly recommended for Russophiles and Russophobes alike.
