Get the latest gossip
Ewan McGregor Charms in ‘A Gentleman in Moscow’, but Can’t Turn the Hit Novel Into a Compelling Show: TV Review
The Showtime miniseries stars Ewan McGregor as Count Alexander Rostov in a listless adaptation of Amor Towles's hit novel.
The erstwhile Count — honorifics are banned under Bolshevik rule — strikes up a clandestine romance with actress Anna Urbanova (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who’s married to McGregor in real life) and a doting, avuncular friendship with Nina (Alexa Gooddall), a young girl and fellow captive who masters the Metropol like a mix of Anastasia and Eloise. Rostov’s main points of contact with his jailers are his handler Osip (Johnny Harris), who solicits private lessons in culture to better grasp his bourgeois adversaries, and Bishop (John Heffernan), a Metropol employee who senses opportunities for advancement amid social upheaval. His Rostov is compelling, yet also familiar — Towles’ novel was published in 2016, just a couple years after Ralph Fiennes portrayed a similar figure in Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which brought its namesake property to life with much more stylistic brio than directors Sam Miller and Sarah O’Gorman bring to the Metropol.
Or read this on Variety
