Behind the British accents and literary allusions (which are underlined, italicized and bolded, just in case you couldn't figure them out for yourself) lies a very middlebrow drama about a couple nearing their sunset years and reaching a crossroad in their relationship. Unlike the even-more-mediocre Honour, from a few seasons back, where the husband left the wife only to return in the last third to beg forgiveness, The Retreat from Moscow at least offers a slight surprise: the hubby (John Lithgow) breaks for good, leaving the wife (Eileen Atkins) to slide into a scary depression and both parties to rely on their grown son (Ben Chaplin) as both a crutch and pawn.
Sounds promising, but it's all quite pallid in the writing and staging, with the dialogue not living up to the intensity of the situation. It's soap opera that wants to be Stoppard and hovers rather drearily between. All three actors are above reproach, though I cringed a bit when Eileen Atkins tried to invest the spineless Alice with mythic agony.
