My Review - Maxwell
Streaming on Prime
My Rating. 8/10
Maxwell is a BBC tele movie I hadn't heard of till reading an article about its star David Suchet who plays Robert Maxwell the Czech born British media baron who was in direct competition with Rupert Murdoch .
Based on some factual events that script writer Craig Warner has cleverly embellished for dramatic effect .
Maxwell " portrays the last few months of a driven egomaniacs life and how he manipulated and intimidated his executives
and family to bend to his will.
Robert Maxwell's character who in life was a former member of Parliament as well as being a suspected fraudster and spy could easily have been the inspiration for Logan Roy the character that Brian Cox portrays so beautifully in Succession .
The family characters are even similar and some fine performances from Ben Caplan as Maxwell's son Kevin who lives in his fathers shadow plus an all time favourite of mine British actress Patricia Hodge who plays Betty Maxwell the wife who has reached her use by date as far as Maxwell is concerned.
It's a very interesting cast we even get to see Dan Stevens (3 years before Downton Abbey) as Basil Brookes the young account executive who tries to reason with his megalomaniac boss.
David Suchet who plays Robert Maxwell is a superb character actor I always enjoy his performances. I've seen him play roles ranging from his signature role as Hercule Poirot to Lady Bracknell and even cast as a dynamic Vatican Cardinal Benneli on stage in Sydney in The Last Confession.
He excels playing powerful men and Robert Maxwell who was obviously a powerful but repellent British tycoon who turned money laundering into an art form.
This 90 minute movie is so well done and a credit to all involved including Director Colin Barr.
