Unlike most novels, the self-published The Perfect Stranger includes a disclaimer that “any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence.” Is it fiction or fact? Whatever the case, this slim volume shatters the composure of acclaimed British documentary filmmaker Catherine Ravenscroft (a sublime Cate Blanchett), who sees herself and the exposure of her darkest secret in those pages.
That’s the premise of Oscar-winning writer-director Alfonso Cuarón’s mesmerizing seven-part mystery-drama Disclaimer, based on Renée Wright’s brilliant page-turner. Cuarón announces early on to “beware of narrative and form” as this twisty tale unfolds from multiple perspectives and not always reliable points of view, with a mix of first-person and omniscient third-person narrators.
Lauded as a “beacon of truth” at an awards ceremony by no less than TV journalist Christiane Amanpour, Catherine panics when The Perfect Stranger appears in her mail, attempting to burn it while telling her mystified husband Robert (a vulnerable Sacha Baron Cohen), “I think I’m being punished.” She’s not wrong. Soon, the shock waves from the book’s publication threaten to destroy her reputation, her family, and her career.
The unlikely engine of her misfortune is a grizzled avenger named Stephen Brigstocke (crafty Kevin Kline), a retired teacher whose grief over personal loss stretching back decades sets him on a crusade of retribution. “I was the one who was going to destroy her in real life,” he muses. “But first she had to suffer.”
Related‘Disclaimer’ Trailer: Kevin Kline Is Determined to Expose Cate Blanchett’s Past
Does she ever. Catherine works herself into a state of emotional exhaustion trying, often in vain, to protect her family and livelihood, as the narrator observes, “The act of keeping the secret a secret has almost become bigger than the secret itself.” In a parallel storyline, we learn how Stephen came to publish this would-be roman à clef, while The Perfect Stranger is dramatized in sexually graphic flashback scenes set in balmy Italy that, in classic old-cinema style, open and close with circular iris shots, becoming a movie within the series. (As a version of the younger Catherine, Leila George is a gorgeous enigma, attracting the attention of the affecting Louis Partridge as Stephen’s son Jonathan, a feckless gap-year tourist.)
Kline plays the forlorn Stephen with relish, stalking his prey (including Kodi Smit-McPhee as the Ravenscrofts’ poignantly rootless and estranged son) while adopting the façade of a doddering old gentleman in various disguises, mischievously gloating as his vendetta takes shape. Privately, he is haunted by the memory of his late wife Nancy (The Crown’s ubiquitous Lesley Manville, currently seen in Moonflower Murders and Grotesquerie), wearing her tattered cardigan as a shroud as he goes about restoring what he believes will be a moral balance.
In its blurry and tangled tapestry, Disclaimer challenges our own perceptions of truth and fiction while delivering an edge-of-the-seat psychological thrill ride.
Disclaimer, Series Premiere (two episodes), Friday, October 11, Apple TV+
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