MotherFatherSon: Richard Gere is subtly Machiavellian but Helen McCrory is positively regal

McCrory is simply excellent as Gere's on-screen wife
Standout star: Helen McCrory shines in the BBC's new thriller
BBC Picture Archives / Steve Schofield
Guy Pewsey6 March 2019

Quite the casting coup, to secure Richard Gere for the latest BBC drama.

The American actor has true Hollywood star status through roles in films including Pretty Woman, An American Gigolo and Primal Fear. Usually, we’re rooting for him, the silver fox with the undeniable charm. It’s refreshing, then, to find him tackling less familiar territory at the centre of a thriller where we may get a glimpse of what could be sharp fangs beneath his kilowatt smile.

Gere is Max, an American media mogul who owns newspapers and TV channels across the globe, including The National Reporter in the UK, where his son, Caden, is editor. When your primary asset is information, you hold remarkable influence, and with the UK on the verge of a general election, Max flies to London to weigh up his options. His decision comes down to more than putting a cross beside a name: the person he anoints, the one he blesses with positive coverage and exposure, could be the one to lead the country.

It’s a big decision. On landing he makes a beeline for Downing Street (via the back entrance) to speak with the current prime minister, who serves shortbread. Max expected fruitcake. He eats the biscuit, regardless. It does not matter, he says. For whatever reason, it clearly does.

Media mogul: Richard Gere plays publishing tycoon Max
BBC/Laurence Cendrowicz

Next, it’s the leader of the Opposition. Angela Howard, played by Sarah Lancashire, cares about bridging the gap between the rich and poor. She can hear them, she says. The downtrodden. She can hear their suffering, and she can speak to them, fix them. There is something sinister about her but, as Max says, she definitely has something. He has a tough choice on his hands between the two leaders.

It’s an interesting premise, and Gere plays Max’s quietly Machiavellian movements well with more subtlety than, for example, Kevin Spacey in House of Cards. Like Spacey, however, he is completely eclipsed by his ex-wife. Helen McCrory is Kathryn, Caden’s mother. She spends much of her time volunteering with the homeless, and risks controversy by becoming close with one of the men who is there for help.

In seeking closeness she is, one feels, pursuing redemption for parental mistakes. Caden is following in his father’s footsteps rather than her own. She has, she thinks, failed him. Caden books a private room for lunch in a restaurant, as if he is fearing a scene from her. She insists on moving to the main restaurant, almost dragging him back to the realm of the real.

McCrory is simply excellent in the role, presenting a deep pool of distress beneath a calm surface. She is good enough an actress, though, to portray this without the script calling for her to fill a bath to the very top before allowing it to flood the bathroom. One episode in, Max and Kathryn are ripe and ready to clash over the fate of their son following a medical emergency — his body, yes, but also his soul.

McCrory is stirring, yearning with a desire for connection, to anyone. One can’t help but wonder if she was considered to play Princess Margaret in the next series of The Crown. A shame, if so: this is proof that she would have brought something special.

MotherFatherSon begins at 9pm on BBC Two on March 6.

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