Hello Readers,
I first heard about the show Disclaimer when I heard that it was going to be shown at the Venice Film Festival. This is not common practice for a TV show as far as I have heard but then again not many television shows are written, produced, directed and edited by award winning director, Alfonso Cuarón.
His films in the past have covered a range of topics and genres: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban – family friendly teen fantasy; Children of Men – dystopian drama; Gravity – sci-fi one-woman adventure; Great Expectations – R-rated rom-com and Roma – a love letter to his home country of Mexico.
Disclaimer adds another string to his bow as a twisty psychological thriller told over seven episodes in several periods of time. The basic story is that a woman meets a young man on holiday, something transpires between them and he dies saving her young son from the sea. 20 years on, the young man’s father is seeking revenge for the death of his son and the subsequent death of his marriage and wife. He discovers a novel that his late wife wrote about their son and his death and uses this to destroy award-winning documentarian who he believes caused his son’s death.
Disclaimer (2024)
This show has a fairly simple premise once you work out who each character is but the feelings and pain that the characters carry and act on drives the plot forward and makes it a gripping thriller. The cast selected for the roles were very fitting and played their parts well. Before I had even finished watching the show, I knew I wanted to write a review about it as I wanted to dissect just what made it so intense.
One of the main things that made Disclaimer so powerful was the camera work. Alfonso Cuarón is known for his interesting and dynamic shots and these were certainly used to full effect in Disclaimer. Getting up close and personal to the characters showed us their emotions and even changed the feelings of a scene. There were many establishing shots that were not standard or boring but just reminded you in which location or time period you were.
What really came through for me was the emotions of the characters and how their feelings at root, caused the story. Nancy (Lesley Manville) felt so strongly about her son Jonathan’s death that she was driven to write the book to make sense of his early passing. With the photographs retrieved from his film camera, she pieced together what had happened or what she thought had happened.
Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) is shown as a career-first family-second woman but her story goes deeper than this. She has been unable to form a strong bond with her son, Nicholas who is pushed out of the nest to find a job and some independence. His father, Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) believes that this is not right for Nick (Kodi Smit-McPhee) but goes along with her. He believes in their special father-son bond over football but Nick really doesn’t feel very loved by either of them.
It’s apparent that Nick does not remember anything of his near-death experience in the ocean when he was four years old but something has stuck around as he carries a trauma that is not explained by anything else as he is in a privileged position. Catherine also holds this experience close to her chest but when Nancy’s book comes to light, she has to start facing her past.
Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline) plays a character that you love to dislike but again may just be misunderstood. His quest of terror is done out of his anger at himself for his son’s death and the staleness that existed between himself and Nancy for the next 10 years until her death. He was a normal man with a family and a good job as a teacher at a private school but having his son ripped away from him caused his life to stand still.
I thought Louis Partridge who plays Jonathan was great in the role, especially in the last episode. We see his quiet and unassuming nature when he meets Catherine and Nick in Italy, how we would expect a 19 year old to be but again, his story has many deeper truths.
A large part of the story shows the systematic destruction of Catherine’s career and home life by Stephen who feels a need to make the world aware of how Catherine let his son drown. We see Catherine’s distress and emotions come out but we don’t see an alternative point of view for most of the show. The thrilling nature comes from not knowing what Stephen or other characters will do next to further discredit Catherine or if her retaliation will go a step too far.
This is certainly a show for older viewers with some explicit sex scenes. They were crucial to the plot but I think were also done for shock factor and as many people have said, sex sells. In my opinion, there was nothing too uncomfortable or prolonged that we haven’t seen before but I would say it’s not suitable for younger teenagers.
I don’t want to go too much into the story as a whole but I will say I was hooked until the end and watched most episodes on the day they were released. Overall, I give the show 4/5.
All episodes are now streaming on Apple TV+
Happy Watching,
Robyn