| Proficient and a little dull. Despite the amusing, showboating performance by Michael Stuhlbarg at its center, PATRIOTS never really gets past interesting; it’s insufficiently dynamic. It’s well directed by Rupert Goold, but Morgan’s work is more script than play. He tells the story of Putin’s enthronement by oligarchs clearly, but the play is just too respectable. It’s staid when it should be howling. There’s a psychologically richer story to be told about men like Putin who employ external solutions (autocracy) for internal problems (emotional debility), but PATRIOTS isn’t it. It’s very good television. |
