What to Watch: Disclaimer
When a dark secret from the past is revealed in a tell-all book, and a grief-wracked widower is set upon revenge, a London family's comfy, middle class world is shattered.
British thriller Disclaimer was released in 2024 but flicking through Prime’s offerings - the name Cate Blanchett hooked me in – why wouldn’t it?
With a cast that also includes Kevin Kline, Lesley Manville and Sacha Baron Cohen what could possibly go wrong?
Not a lot it turns out. Disclaimer is a well-told, slow-burner, psychological revenge thriller, that unfolds over seven episodes.
Blanchett plays journalist Catherine Ravenscroft who lives a well-heeled London life with husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen) head of a dodgy not-for-profit.
The story hops between points of view and points in time and we see Catherine’s comfortable, professional world start to unravel when a book, The Perfect Stranger,is hand-delivered to her swanky media company office.
Cate Blanchett as Catherine Ravenscroft and Sacha Baron Cohen as Robert Ravenscroft
Apple TV+
The book describes a holiday in Italy 20 years earlier. There, Catherine and her young son Nicholas encounter Jonathan, he’s a keen photographer who surreptitiously takes pictures of Catherine - a sexually charged dinner and seduction swiftly follow.
Jonathan drowns the next day attempting to save Nicholas who has floated out to sea in his toy dinghy.
Enter Stephen and Nancy Brigstocke, (Kevin Kline and Leslie Manville) the dead boy’s parents. Nancy subsequently writes a book about that fateful holiday - the one we see being hand delivered by Stephen in the future to Catherine's office. Nancy dies after competing the book.
Brigstocke, a retired private school teacher, now grieving his wife’s death as well as his son’s, is shambling around his elegant but slightly decrepit London home wearing his wife’s old cardigan. He is determined to avenge his son’s death. When he stumbles upon the manuscript of his late wife's book, he sees a way to exact vengeance, gets a publisher on the hook, and the Ravenscroft’s comfy world is detonated.
Kevin Kline as Stephen Brigstocke in Disclaimer.
Apple TV+
Meanwhile, Nicholas now grown up is going off the rails, visiting drug dens and generally wasting away his life, Catherine’s stellar career is in free fall; when her media mates get hold of the book, they shun her, and her marriage implodes as Robert is consumed with jealously when he sees the compromising pictures Jonathan took 20 years earlier and the revelations about his wife's affair in the book.
The book and pictures show Catherine in a terrible light - but can we trust the source material?
Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who has a swag of Oscars, Golden Globes and Baftas to his name, Disclaimer is also beautiful to watch.
Stellar cast and A-list writer-director, Disclaimer has had decidedly mixed reviews (vacuous, baffling and misfire among the plaudits) - although Blanchett was Emmy nominated for her performance.
But I found plenty to enjoy, certainly enough to keep me coming back – which is more than I can say for critical darling Severance.
Disclaimer is an Apple TV + production which can also be seen on Prime.
Kodi Smit-McPhee as Nicolas Ravenscroft in Disclaimer.
Apple TV+
Don't watch it if: Byzantine non-linear plotting annoys.
If you like Disclaimer what should you watch next?
Sherwood: Old grudges linger in first class this drama set in a Nottingham mining village. (TVNZ)
Slow Horses: Mick Heron's novels have been turned into this instant classic, which stars Garry Oldman as the splendidly scrofulous spy master Jackson Lamb. (Prime)
Bad Sisters: The Garvey sisters conspire to murder their appalling brother-in-law, John Paul, in this dark, often hilarious show. (Apple TV+)
