‘The Regime’ Review: Kate Winslet Tries but this Palace Satire is a Big Coup d’not

Middle Europe. That’s where our story takes place, a nameless country (frustratingly only ever referred to as “the country” or “the region”) but for real geographic purposes essentially Bosnia-Herzegovina or the former Czech Republic, countries split by the civil war and where we find right wing Chancellor Elena Vernham (Kate Winslet), newly ‘elected’ and celebrating the country’s ‘Victory Day,’ marking seven years since splitting with the nearby Faban Corridor. 

Vernham is a model authoritarian fascist wrapped up in a pretty package. Blond and gorgeous, spouting extremist phrases like ‘vile leftist’ and ‘global elite’ all while looking like Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni or a Fox News anchor. But she’s also a massive germaphobe. Obsessed with the palace (dubbed ‘The People’s Palace’ it’s a gold and gaudy relic; Versailles by way of Trump) being ammonia sanitized 24 hours a day from spores and allergens and humidity, she demands the use of a mold measuring meter before she enters a room. The palace itself is managed by Agnes, a sickly, Victorian era doll looking Andrea Riseborough (excuse me, Academy Award nominee Andrea Riseborough), who cares after Elena’s son while mummy is busy dictatoring. There’s also Vernham’s dead father, a previous Chancellor, tucked deep under the palace in a glass viewing case in a darkened tomb she visits in hopes of sage advice from the afterlife. 

But disrupting the celebration is the minor rebellion happening in the cobalt mines, the country’s biggest export (as well as the apparently very lucrative sugar beet) where multiple workers are killed by mercenary security led by Herbert Zubak (Matthias Schoenaerts), a vile and nasty thug of a man, an unrepentant brute and one of the more awful television characters in recent memory. His actions are brought to Vernham’s attention who thinks his intensity is exactly what she needs by her side and indeed, after an assassination attempt Zubak is right there to protect her as her cuckold husband (Guillaume Gallienne) merely watches. The two become an inseparable pair, sexually and ideologically; he’s brutally honest with her but still her champion. Each has a rapacious need for power that at first seem aligned but when you want to be on top there’s only room for one, right? Zubak takes over everything for Vernham at her request, including leading war room meetings (in a set directly out of Dr. Strangelove), ditching medication for home remedies like rubbing her chest with mustard and literally eating dirt. Basically locked away in their massive palace, far from the increasingly maddening crowd, their relationship begins as Stockholm Syndrome before it morphs into a sort of Munchausen by proxy.

Kate Winslet is a gifted comedic actress but at every turn those talents are wasted in a script with dialogue that wants so desperately to be Veep meets In the Loop by way of The Death of Stalin but can’t come within spitting distance of those deftly written and conceived pieces. Entering a working class town to save some face and scrounge some votes Vernham remarks, “It smells like a hog’s urethra, we must be in Westgate.” You can feel the blueprint of Veep here, it just feels like the D-list version of it. Winslet’s vocal gymnastics here, talking out of the side of her mouth, sounds like Drew Barrymore doing an English accent if she had a stroke. But to her credit, Winslet attacks it, masticates it and makes a meal of the meager servings she’s given. A gifted singer (remember when she scored a U.K. top 10 hit with “What If” from the 2001 animated film Christmas Carol: The Movie?), Winslet’s pipes are on display here too, not once but twice, but intentionally bad. Her rendition of “If You Leave Me Now” at a charity event is so pitchy she wouldn’t make it past a first American Idol audition but her yes men and key supporters inevitably praise her to satisfy her ego and to keep their jobs. Schoenaerts has even less to work with, finding no notes in his volatile brute and offering nothing for us.

As Vernham begins trimming the fat from her cabinet and deviating from NATO-sanctioned tactics tensions start to rise between ‘the country’ and the United States where the president is ‘very concerned.’ Not concerned enough to visit Vernham herself but instead a U.S. Senator in the form of a Clinton-esque Martha Plimpton. In her brief scenes, Plimpton is sharp but woefully underused, merely a puppet for Vernham and Zubak’s fear mongering to send a message back to the U.S. Hugh Grant shows up briefly as the previous Chancellor and gives one of his spryest and funniest recent performances.

If it seems like I’m making several comparisons to other shows and films it’s because The Regime doesn’t have much of an original voice or idea. The series was created by Will Tracy, a writer on Succession, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and a co-writer on the biting eat the rich satire The Menu from last year. The 6-time Emmy Award winner knows his way around this material and coupled with directors Stephen Frears (Dangerous Liaisons), and Jessica Hobbs (The Crown), who know their way around palace intrigue maybe better than anyone, why does this feel so recycled and uninspired?

There’s been an intense need since the 2016 U.S. election, and the subsequent right wing tide turn that reached far outside of America, to figure out how to talk about it artistically in a way that’s entertaining and has some insight. Art is naturally a commentary on events, the world, politics, social dialogue. One of the great successes of most of Armando Iannucci’s work is that it’s ahead of its time. It sees where we’re going and hypothesizes in the wildest way possible. Satire is entertaining because it’s absurd, then we saw Veep become reality. The Regime wants to crank that up a bit more, and there are some moments that hit the right note (an Eva Peron balcony moment comes to mind) but rather than feel like it’s looking forward, it feels stuck in the past, a relic. Even by the time we get the eventual coup d’état, it’s neither clever enough to be commentary nor smart enough to be prophetic.

Grade: C-

The six-episode HBO Original limited series The Regime premieres March 1 on HBO and will be available to stream on Max.