TV REVIEW : ‘Rasputin’ Is Worth Its Weight in Gold

Gregory Rasputin is the sturgeon who gets bigger and bigger with every retelling, and is probably too heavily embroidered in pop history as the “mad monk of Russia” ever to be totally liberated from the ornate hyperbole of his own exotic legend.

HBO doesn’t really try. But its movie “Rasputin” is such a smashing attraction in other ways that you don’t much care. The swanky filming, amid Budapest and the gold baroque and gilded stucco fittings in and around St. Petersburg, by itself makes this excavation of old bones a worthy watch and something to behold.

Whatever its excesses and omissions, Peter Pruce’s teleplay fits nicely with this spectacular pomp, as do Uli Edel’s direction and Alan Rickman’s enjoyably gaudy romp as the self-proclaimed Siberian holy man/healer whose insinuation into the household of the last Russian czar may have hastened the rotted monarchy’s collapse that preceded the 1917 Bolshevik revolution.

His wild hair, long beard, phosphorescent eyes and reported supernatural powers helped make Rasputin one of the most charismatic and mysterious figures of modern history, around which fact and fable have long commingled. HBO’s drama clutches some of these mythic coattails, most notably the oft-repeated, almost-comic tales of Rasputin’s near indestructibility.

The catalyst of “Rasputin” is Alexei (Freddie Findlay), the sickly young son of Czar Nicholas II (Ian McKellen) and heir to the throne. Rasputin’s inexplicable ability to alleviate the boy’s hemophilia--something that historians seem not to have challenged--wins over Czarina Alexandra (Greta Scacchi). Despite Nicholas’ simmering skepticism, Rasputin is awarded his own fancy digs and becomes virtually a member of court, under the protection of the czarina, with dire consequences for the royal family.

At his peak, Rasputin reportedly recommended the appointment of government ministers and even went so far as to offer the czar advice on the conduct of World War I. Even as his influence grows in “Rasputin” though, so too do the number of his powerful foes within the monarchy. Ultimately, reports of his lewd behavior, public drunkenness and corruptness are too much even for the czarina to stomach, settling his hash.

Although “Rasputin” too seldom mentions the miserable peasantry massing outside the Romanovs’ golden salons of privilege, its obsession with grandeur not only makes for palatial entertainment, but also echoes the Russian nobles’ own isolation from the reality that soon would bury them.

* “Rasputin” airs at 9 tonight on HBO.