Roush Review: A Charming ‘Gentleman’ Melts the Moscow Chill
Review
A Gentleman in Moscow
If you’re going to spend your life under political house arrest, you could do worse than the gilded cage of Moscow’s plush Hotel Metropol, even if one’s accustomed suite has now become an attic grotto. Those are the reduced circumstances to which Count Alexander Rostov (a lovably witty Ewan McGregor) adjusts in Showtime‘s poignant adaptation from Ben Vanstone (All Creatures Great and Small) of Amor Towles’ acclaimed novel, A Gentleman in Moscow.
Is his spirit diminished? Hardly. “It is the business of times to change and gentlemen to change with them,” Rostov concedes with characteristic dignity in the wake of the Russian Revolution that renders the deposed nobility the enemy of the state. He is warned in no uncertain terms that should he ever step outside the Metropol he will be shot on sight, and his response to being moved to what once were servants’ quarters is to thank his captors: “You have carried out your duties with the greatest courtesy available to you.”
Even after being shorn of his elaborate mustaches, McGregor imbues Rostov with a personality that commands any room he enters by a mere flash of his twinkling, intelligent, empathetic eyes. Once he eventually becomes part of the hotel restaurant’s staff, his duty to his customers can be life-changing for those exposed to a glimpse of old-world panache.
As the years tick by, Rostov makes the most of his surroundings, creating a new family from the staff and his fellow guests. The cast of memorable characters, whose eventful lives keep this tale from feeling claustrophobic over eight episodes, includes Nina, a precocious young girl (Alexa Goodall) who offers him a passkey to the hotel’s secrets, and Anna, a glamorous actress (the sublime Mary Elizabeth Winstead, McGregor’s own wife) who finds a kindred spirit in his resilient soul.
Perhaps his most intriguing relationship is with Osip (a subtly affecting Johnny Harris), an imposingly burly yet soulful officer from the secret police who hopes to recruit the Count as a spy but finds him a more valuable resource as a secret tutor in the ways of a forbidden gentlemanly culture of literature (Les Miserables) and American cinema (It’s a Wonderful Life).
“Forget honor. There’s no such thing,” Osip warns Rostov, who won’t hear of it. Despite the Moscow chill, it warms the heart to see charm used as a survival mechanism.
A Gentleman in Moscow, Series Premiere, Friday, March 29, Paramount+ with Showtime (Linear Premiere, Sunday, March 31, 9/8c, Showtime)
