Adapting a complex, deep, yet amusing and readable novel like Amor Towles’s must present so many challenges, but the eight-episode A Gentleman in Moscow succeeds brilliantly, if for reasons different to the book’s strengths. If Towles achieved a wonderful mix of humor, setting/milieu, drama, and style, the series is more emotive and cuts the plot down to size; it feels very different. That it fails to drift into horrid melodrama is entirely due to the flawless acting performance of Euan McGregor, who plays Count Alexander Rostov, sentenced in 1922 by the new communist government to full house arrest in the Metropol Hotel on Red Square. McGregor is pitch perfect as the aristocrat who retains his dignity while being trapped in one building for over three decades, while ending up with a mini family of an adopted child, the love of his life, and the hotel’s idiosyncratic staff. The supporting cast is more than adequate, the music suits the story, and the indoor-scenic cinematography elevates the Metropol to a character in its own right. The episodes rocket along until a feverish climax. Viewer, I recommend you read the book first, but if reading is not your ticket, by all means, this series of A Gentleman in Moscow is a 2024 viewing highlight.
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