Alfonso Cuaron – “Disclaimer” series: The power of prejudice

Things are actually going really well for London journalist Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett). She receives a renowned journalism award for a documentary, everything is actually right in her marriage to Robert (Sascha Baron Cohen) and her 25-year-old son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is finally becoming independent and moving out of home. Until suddenly one evening she receives a novel called “The Perfect Stranger” anonymously.

Ravenscroft reads the book and is horrified to find that the novel tells of a long-ago and traumatizing event in her life that she has never told anyone about. The seven-part series “Disclaimer” by star director Alfonso Cuaron, which is hard to beat in terms of tension, is based on Renee Knight’s novel of the same name (2015). In addition to the successful upper-class journalist, the widower and pensioner Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline) is at the center of this star-studded series. He is fighting to remember his son Jonathan (Louis Partridge), who drowned 20 years ago during a vacation in Italy.

Everyone who gets their hands on the novel takes the story at face value, whether Catherine’s husband or her work colleagues.

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As his father suddenly finds out, Jonathan, who drowned under tragic circumstances, had a liaison with Catherine Ravenscroft while they were on vacation. This is proven by photos that he finds together with a novel manuscript written by his deceased wife, which he quickly self-publishes in order to put Catherine Ravenscroft under pressure. The book “The Perfect Stranger” tells the story of a young man who falls for a manipulative older, attractive woman, whose son he saves from drowning and who dies in the process.

Is Catherine Ravenscroft to blame for Jonathan’s death? Did she want to get rid of her clingy lover? At least that’s what it says in the novel that Stephen Brigstocke distributes in Catherine’s family and work environment, which soon turns against the successful woman, who is portrayed in the book as an irresponsible, morally depraved perpetrator. But is that all true? Everyone who gets their hands on the novel takes the story at face value, whether Catherine’s husband or her work colleagues.

Alfonso Cuaron, who directed and wrote the screenplay, unfolds the entire story of this 20-year-old summer and Stephen Brigstocke’s campaign of revenge against the successful journalist in a complex narrative panorama with ingeniously interwoven storylines from the present and the past. Their lives soon fall apart, as do those of husband Robert and son Nicholas.

Did Catherine really seduce young Jonathan while her husband was traveling to London on business? Why did she never contact the grieving parents? What really happened that night when Jonathan took photos of their romantic encounter before drowning while rescuing Catherine’s son the next day?

Alfonso Cuaron directs this as a dense, atmospheric drama in cinema quality. This story always comes up with new dramatic twists and amazing surprises. At some point it becomes clear that there is actually an absurd perpetrator-victim reversal here, which also works so well because the upper-class successful woman is perceived by everyone as a threat and represents a real enemy. What begins as an exciting crime story about passion, grief, desire, family conflicts and a coming-of-age story leads to a disturbing and stirring socio-political drama about the destructive power of prejudice.

Available on Apple TV+