Disclaimer–Truth or Fiction?
Five-time Oscar winner Alfonso Cuaron (of “Roma”, “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, “Pan’s Labyrinth“, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkhaban”, and more) directs Disclaimer based upon Renée Knight’s novel of the same name. The middle-aged protagonist, Catherine Ravenscroft (Academy Award-winner Cate Blanchett), receives a career-defining award for her courageous coverage and truth-telling. Flush with the recognition for her efforts as a journalist, a book, The Perfect Stranger, arrives at her office. Purportedly written by Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline) as his novel, The Perfect Stranger, is actually a manuscript by his deceased wife, Nancy (Lesley Manville of Moonflower Murders). A recently retired high school English teacher who is tired of his joyless life, Stephen appropriates his wife’s manuscript with malicious intent. His son, Jonathan (Louis Partridge), and wife are both now dead and he wishes to memorialize Jonathan.
Although there is a disclaimer typical of novels denying any resemblance to actual characters or events, Catherine immediately realizes that the main character in The Perfect Stranger is based upon a past she has successfully hidden from her husband Robert (an astounding Sacha Baron Cohen of “Borat” in an understated and fragile portrayal of masculinity) and twenty-five year old son, Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee of “The Power of the Dog”). Both Catherine and Robert pretend to hide their disappointment in their son for his lack of ambition from their super-achieving point-of-view.
Disclaimer is a story within a story, with the novel, The Perfect Stranger, replicating Catherine’s past, a secret now dating back twenty-years when she was a young mother with five-year old Nicholas. But narrators can be unreliable, and perspectives can shift Rashomon-style. Mirror-shifting points of view and their reality occur throughout both stories, past and present. Does Catherine even have a voice in directing the narrative as her life falls apart: marriage, career, motherhood,– from the collateral damage of the bestselling novel?
There is no truth without lies–at least, in Disclaimer. The young Catherine (played with mystery by Leila George), is witnessed by the viewer through the eyes of the Brigstockes and later by Catherine’s husband, son,and her co-workers, with the notable exception of her mother. Catherine doesn’t try to speak the truth because she is seemingly incapable of it. And we don’t know why, until the final two episodes, forceful, memorable and powerful with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline maintaining their reputation as two of our finest actors.
A must-see!
Availability: AppleTV+