Elena Vernham in “The Regime” is a classic Winslet protagonist. Beneath her gleaming exterior, Elena, the authoritarian ruler of a fictional European country teetering on collapse, is crumbling apart. The former physician has turned into a raging hypochondriac. She’s convinced the moldy interior of her residence is slowly killing her. It’s a deeply unsettling spiral that leaves her vulnerable to an ouster.
We’re just one episode into this hugely intriguing melodrama, but Winslet’s stunning ability to veer from steely stateswoman to fragile child has us hooked for the six-episode duration. To hit these difficult notes as a performer, Winslet called upon experts to help her understand people plagued with Elena’s condition. As she explained in an interview with IndieWire:
“I did actually work with a neuroscientist and a psychotherapist to try and understand trauma a bit better and how that can manifest itself in people’s bodies and lives and how they move and how they speak. Because I wanted to make sure that I was rooting her in some kind of reality. It’s really looking at her childhood, where her trauma began, and how that has stayed with her and how it absolutely impacts every single one of her close personal relationships.”
She probably didn’t have to go this deep prior to playing a woman on a blind date with a man who has testicles dangling from his chin in “Movie 23,” but, in most cases, this is the kind of commitment that keeps Winslet at the acme of her profession. Everything she does is a must-see.
New episodes of “The Regime” drop Sundays on Max.