Disclaimer overview
What it’s about: An erotic psychological thriller about a respected investigative journalist and the publication of a mysterious novel containing her old secrets.
Author: Alfonso Cuaron.
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Lesley Manville.
Where: Now on Apple TV+.
You might feel like you can’t wait for the next episode to air.
Ten years after Big Little Lies premiered, Prestige TV is still swimming in the aftermath of a cultural reset. From Sharp Objects to The Perfect Couple, A-list actors and indie filmmakers have flocked to adaptations of the country’s outrageous and scandal-filled literature. A golden cage that melts and shines.
The new Apple TV+ miniseries Disclaimer is the latest outgrowth of the Liane Moriarty industrial complex and the first television project written and directed by acclaimed Mexican filmmaker Alfonso Cuaron.
The film is based on the 2015 novel by Renee Knight, an artist best known for uplifting popular works such as Great Expectations, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and Children of Humanity. The piece is an intuitive, if somewhat uneven, combination.
Working with longtime collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki (who shares cinematography with Bruno Delbonnel), Cuaron has crafted one of the most visually stunning shows in recent memory. But he struggles to reconcile his ambitious style with his naturally traditional materials.
Katherine Ravenscroft’s life is thrown into turmoil when a secret from 20 years ago is revealed again in the novel. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
Cate Blanchett is once again having fun playing a woman embroiled in controversy. A hard-nosed investigative journalist named Katherine Ravenscroft is brought down by the publication of a creepy new paperback containing old secrets.
As with the recent Gossip Girl reboot, Ravenscroft’s perspective is shared with that of his pen pal Stephen Brigstock (Kevin Kline, A Fish Called Wanda), a widow and former teacher. are. He wages a breathtakingly vicious war against the woman who blames him. Death of son Jonathan (Louis Partridge, Enola Holmes).
In vignettes set in the early 2000s (punctuated by classic iris shots), Disclaimer follows a wide-eyed 19-year-old Jonathan across Italy. In Pisa, his lens finds himself drawn to young Ravenscroft, who was traveling with his four-year-old child Nicholas, and a chance meeting quickly develops into an overripe love affair.
What really happened to Jonathan Brigstock? (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
When Jonathan dies, Ravenscroft commits her sins to a watery grave, but her mother Nancy (Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread) later discovers a film containing a series of macabre photographs. Until it’s developed.
The show keeps a lid on whose point of view we’re seeing, and how much the novel obscures the truth, but Catherine hates herself “all over again” in the manuscript. He is aware of this and is immediately driven to damage control. .
Disclaimer’s ensemble cast produces great work across the board. Blanchett effortlessly defuses Ravenscroft’s growing paranoia with her calm, confident demeanor. Even when her dirty laundry is aired in public, she is never more helpless and pathetic than when she tries to bond with Nicholas, a gangly misogynist in his mid-twenties ( He is currently played by Kodi Smit-McPhee in Memory of a Snail). .
Katherine’s husband Robert, played by an almost unrecognizable Sacha Baron Cohen, is shocked by the revelation. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
Sacha Baron Cohen plays her husband Robert in an unusual dramatic role, and frankly, it suits him well. He’s a supporting character cursed with the consciousness of being a supporting character, whether as the unremarkable heir to an old financial empire or the loving husband of an award-winning journalist.
But it’s Klein who stands out as a vengeful sadist with nothing to lose. Each time I am struck by emotional fear, I restore a sense of joy and purpose to a life that has become empty. Stephen, not Catherine, is responsible for the show’s themes of power, manipulation, and abuse.
Kevin Kline is known as an excellent comedic actor for films such as A Fish Called Wanda. In Disclaimer, he plays an even more important role. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
Disclaimer’s later chapters struggle to escape the tension from the slow, inevitable intensity of the story’s gears locking into place. With echoes of The Queen of Hearts (and its recent Catherine Breillat remake, The Last Summer), the ending may come as a surprise to those looking to watch an age gap relationship gone disastrously wrong. A worthwhile journey, albeit one that involves quite a bit of emotional turmoil.
A streaming landscape marred by an overreliance on blockbuster values (resulting in bloated, underwhelming titles like The Last of Us and Avatar: The Last Airbender) In , Cuaron accomplishes the feat of seamlessly translating a cinematic sensibility to the small screen, even as his expressive direction becomes ambiguous. The boundaries between mediums.
Mexican director Alfonso Cuarón is known for great films such as Roma and Children. (Courtesy of Apple TV+)
The director’s trademark long takes and trembling wide angles look at once elegant and foreboding, unlike anything else on television. Each frame is rich in detail, from the luxurious interior design to the idyllic Italian scenery to Ravenscroft’s cat jumping across the frame.
Disclaimer, a weekly show of erotic melodrama, intrigue, and glorious scenery, could have been great television – but the show is so well-produced that it counterintuitively betrays the director’s truth. It’s also a show that functions as a feature-length reminder of the power of. When combined with better materials.
Disclaimer is now live on Apple TV+.
