Michael Douglas dazzles in Franklin

In one of his always entertaining books about Hollywood, screenwriter William Goldman offered a candid insight into why one picture he wrote, 1996’s The Ghost and The Darkness, didn’t work. He blamed its failure on the casting of Michael Douglas in a prominent role as a nineteenth-century big game hunter, describing Douglas the epitome of the “flawed, contemporary American male.” Certainly, compared to his peers, Douglas has taken on remarkably few costume drama roles. Instead, he became best known for icy performances in psychosexual thrillers like Fatal Attraction and Basic Instinct, in which he played alpha males slowly dismantled by powerful and intellectually superior women, to say nothing of his iconic and deservedly Oscar-winning performance as Gordon “Greed is good!” Gekko in Wall Street.

Yet ever since 2000’s Wonder Boys, a gentler side of Douglas has emerged on screen, and it has been shown off at its best in such performances as his Liberace in Steven Soderbergh’s Behind the Candelabra, and, most recently, his charming and low-key appearance as the acting coach Sandy Kominsky in The Kominsky Method. He won awards for both of those performances, and there is something gratifying about watching this most dynastic of actors gracefully taking on roles that suit his age, rather than dyeing his hair and pretending to be a young buck. We can even forgive him his Marvel appearances; after all, we all have to make money somehow.

Therefore Douglas’s starring role in Apple’s latest megabucks miniseries Franklin seems entirely of a piece with his late career decisions. As you’d expect, he’s playing the founding father himself, Benjamin Franklin, and the drama, scripted by Kirk Ellis and Howard Korder and directed by Tim van Patten, gives Douglas a remarkable showcase to dazzle. Ironically, given that the drama will be seen exclusively on television screens, this is a big, glittering star role of the kind that veteran actors seldom get given in the theater these days. As Franklin, Douglas twinkles, intrigues, speaks passable French, flirts with Ludivine Sagnier’s comely musician and deals with all the political shenanigans that the plot requires with charm, conviction and depth. If he isn’t recognized at the Emmys and Golden Globes next year, there is little justice; this is a masterclass in how to portray a famous historical figure and bring them alive afresh, not as a plaster saint but as a comprehensible human being.

If only the rest of Franklin lived up to its lead performance. The drama takes the sensible decision not to attempt to dramatize the whole of Benjamin Franklin’s life, but instead to concentrate exclusively on the period between 1776 and 1785, when he was sent to France in an attempt to secure French support for the revolutionary wars against Britain. This isn’t a bad idea for a drama per se, but the problem is that the way it’s told on screen often makes it feel like the driest of history lessons. While the trailer gave the impression that this would be an exciting, supercharged conspiracy thriller, in fact what it resembles more closely is an eighteenth-century version of The Diplomat with better costumes and wigs. There are large stretches in which very little happens; perfect for getting a drink from the fridge, but less compelling as drama.

The decision to focus on the relationship between Franklin and his teenage grandson Temple (Noah Jupe) was presumably done in order to bring in a younger audience, but if so it’s failed; it’s hard to imagine anyone under the age of forty willingly tuning into this. Had the supporting cast been starrier it might have attracted more viewers, but fine character actors such as Daniel Mays, Eddie Marsan and Sagnier are, alas, not the commercial draws that a series like this merits. That said, the great Thibault de Montalembert — best known for his performance as Mathias in Call My Agent! — is superbly entertaining as the French foreign minister Charles Gravier, whose support for Franklin and the United States only extends insofar as it benefits France — and him personally.

Franklin feels like a companion piece to Apple’s recent Manhunt, dealing with Lincoln’s assassination and the subsequent pursuit of John Wilkes Booth. It’s elegantly mounted, always literate and intelligent, a bit dull and feels overstretched; as with Manhunt, the resolution is never in doubt, so it’s arriving there that constitutes the interest. Yet Douglas’s fine central performance redeems matters and ensures that Franklin is always watchable, at the very least. If this does spell a new interest in costume drama for this particular flawed, contemporary American male, there will be no complaints here.