“Disclaimer” – Statuesque Cate Blanchett Hides a Secret [Review]
Title: “Disclaimer” (TV series)
Date of Release: 2024
Director: Alfonso Cuarón
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville, Louis Patridge, Leila George
“Disclaimer” from Apple TV is a series that undoubtedly stands out from conventional productions with a psychological and criminal plot. This is determined primarily by the original, interestingly guided plot, set in a literary style, but also by the British local color. Interesting, slightly exaggerated characters enrich the whole with additional flavors, and Cate Blanchett’s statuesque beauty, as usual, turns out to be a facade behind which a dark secret hides.
The series “Disclaimer” – a novel in a movie
The series “Disclaimer” is based on the novel by British writer Renée Knight. The literary original turns out to be important here, because the creators decided not to erase the book traces, on the contrary, they accentuated their presence. Thus, in addition to the narrative with images, there is a narration from behind the camera led by a narrator adopting an alternating point of view. In turn, a story slowly emerges from these scattered puzzles, revealing its true, shocking course only after the main character takes the floor.
And the leading character is Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett), a well-known and award-winning television journalist who one day receives a mysterious gift. Someone sends her a novel, “A Perfect Stranger,” describing a summer romance between a 19-year-old boy and a young married mother vacationing in an Italian resort. Catherine quickly recognizes in the heroine of the book herself from decades ago, and in the author of the publication the father of her young lover, Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline). Of course, the story of the love relationship can threaten the journalist’s stable married life, but it is not the erotic details that prove to be the most shocking part of the book. What could really destroy Catherine’s career and happiness are the unclear circumstances surrounding the death of 19-year-old Jonathan Brigstocke (Louis Patridge), who never returned home that summer.
A statuesque Cate Blanchet and a demonic Kevin Kline
As for the portrayal of the characters in “Disclaimer” a fascinating acting duel between Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline is unfolding before our eyes. Their ambiguous personalities shimmer with a whole palette of emotional colors. Behind the perfect face of a successful woman, Cate Blanchet hides the nervous and frightened face of a mother whose professional prestige contrasts with the failures and loss of her beloved son. The scenes when her statuesque appeal breaks like glass during fits of hysteria and panic made a really strong impression on me.
Kevin Kline, on the other hand, as a good-hearted widower suffering after the death of his loved ones, undergoes a truly shocking transformation before the viewer’s eyes. The desire for revenge turns out to be a blind and destructive force that sweeps away all pretenses and overthrows moral inhibitions. Stephen Brigstocke falls into a deadly obsession, reducing his life to a single destructive mission, carried out regardless of the price.
“Disclaimer” – construction and deconstruction
The films of Alfonso Cuarón, who directed the “Disclaimer” series, have several Oscars to their credit. Both the acclaimed “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018) won acclaim from critics and audiences. In “Disclaimer” one can see a skilled directorial hand from the beginning, as the emotional charge of the story is determined primarily by its intricate, somewhat palimpsest-like structure. I get the impression that the gradual unveiling of successive narrative floors, only to shockingly reverse the perspective in a moment’s time, is a procedure that questions the status of the narrative activity itself. Construction and deconstruction as mental-filmic operations undermine literary “truth” and command distrust of story pieces that fit together too well. Meanwhile, the real mystery lies in the silent and untold, that is, in the experience of trauma.
It is trauma and the inability to express it in language that constitute the main content of the title “Disclaimer”. Trauma deprives the person experiencing it, of the ability to express what happened. And thus puts the narrative in the hands of others, sometimes even those who were the perpetrators of the harm. The articulation of “disclaimer” thus represents a restoration of the natural order and is a substitute for justice. Unfortunately, cultural phantasms prove to be very strong and some women’s stories still have no place in men’s imaginations, even if they are loving men.
