Disclaimer, Apple TV+’s new limited series starring the mighty Cate Blanchett, also happens to be directed by Alfonso Cuarón, a filmmaker whose technically dazzling, morally impressive films include Gravity and Roma. In short, it’s a prestige production that’s not to be missed—although, despite a heavy, bench-pressing theme about who gets to own whose narrative, it’s really no more serious than Nicole Kidman’s The Perfect Couple. Both shows are towers of cotton candy teased by a breeze of cheap melodrama.
But that can be fun, no? Because Disclaimer is definitely entertaining. It’s a shame, really, you can’t just go ahead and binge the whole thing.
Blanchett plays Catherine Ravenscroft, a celebrated documentarian-journalist praised by no less than Christiane Amanpour as “a beacon of truth.” Or, is she, on some level, a flinger of bull? Why, you wonder, does she run to the bathroom and vomit after skimming through the pages of a slim, self-published novel that arrived anonymously in the mail a few hours earlier?
She has good reason, we soon learn. This novel, The Perfect Stranger, is a barely disguised roman à clef involving a nasty character Catherine recognizes as her younger self. Written by one EJ Preston, Stranger is about the scandalous behavior, years before, of a blonde, provocatively sensual woman (Leila George) on an Italian vacation without her husband (but with her little son in tow). Essentially, she plays Mrs. Robinson to a British student (Louis Partridge). Their encounter ends in catastrophe.
Worse for the grownup Catherine, the book is a ripping good read that gradually finds an audience. If she’s ever exposed, her brand will be damaged.
When she overhears people describing the book’s villain as death-deserving, Blanchett, who’s at her most entertaining when most boldly extreme, flinches like a cat dodging a squirt from a water pistol.
Meanwhile, we meet that mysterious Preston, whose real name is Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline). He’s a retired British schoolteacher with a slight paunch and a patina of crumminess—he’s like a carpet that could use a good vacuuming to pick up cat hair.
:max_bytes(150000):strip_icc():focal(999x0:1001x2):format(webp)/Disclaimer-Apple-TV-092324-0d6ba413858c4c56bbbb5334672819cf.jpg)
Observing the world with a mingled air of disgust and despair, Brigstocke possesses an intimate knowledge of the tragedy depicted in Stranger. So did his late wife (Lesley Manville), who was so shaken she lost the will to live. Brigstocke, ever so resourceful and ever so sly, also manages to worm his way into Catherine’s family, undermining her marriage to Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen, cast against type in a tidy-man Hugh Grant role).
It’s a plummy theatrical performance—like John Lithgow’s Churchill in The Crown—and it pretty much steals the show.
Disclaimer unfolds with great narrative confidence, never rushing things, letting the unpleasant details seep in. The episode that finally shows us the terrible event in Catherine’s past is one of the best hours of television you’re likely to see: scary, suspenseful, devastating. It’s every bit as powerful as a theatrical film (and slightly reminiscent of the shattering finale of Roma).
The wrap-up, on the other hand, is unconvincing and weak, an act of narrative laziness that—ironically, given Catherine’s history—borders on deceit. You may find yourself wishing Disclaimer could disclaim its finale.
Well, that can’t be done.
The first two episodes of Disclaimer are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes arriving on Fridays.
Leave a Reply