Disclaimer review: Celebrated filmmaker Alfonso Cuarón dives headlong into prestige TV waters with Apple TV+’s Disclaimer - an adaptation of Renée Knight’s novel of the same name. Cuarón writes and directs each of the 7 episodes starring Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Lesley Manville. The show follows a documentarian whose life is turned upside down when a novel reveals a dark secret from her past. 

About Disclaimer

Disclaimer begins with famed journalist Christiane Amanpour saying, “Beware of narrative and form. Their power can bring us closer to the truth, but they can also be a weapon with a great power to manipulate,” before felicitating Blanchett’s documentarian character, the imperiously named Catherine Ravenscroft. Cuarón makes his thesis clear with that statement, and follows it up with fractured timelines, stories within stories, and unreliable narrators. The viewing experience is more than a little unsettling, and it’s meant to be.

The story kickstarts when Kline’s retired teacher Brigstocke finds a book written by his late wife depicting the events surrounding their son’s death two decades ago, along with a few risque photographs of a young Catherine taken by their son. It’s clear that the couple blames Catherine for the death, but the show takes its time to unpack the how of it all. Brigstocke publishes the book in an attempt to exact revenge on Catherine, and her life slowly begins to unravel.

It’s debatable that what we’re watching is actually the story laid out above. Kline narrates his arc in the first person as he goes about scheming, while Catherine’s arc is narrated in the second (Cuarón calls it ‘accusatory’) person, not by Blanchett herself but by an omniscient narrator Indira Varma. A third arc shows us flashbacks to the son’s last days, but are these an objective representation of what happened or a depiction of the events in the book? It’s clear that Cuarón is toying with the audience and their expectations.

In an alternate universe, this could easily have been one of the many Nicole Kidman ‘woman with a secret’ TV adaptations that have been flooding our screens since Big Little Lies. But Cuarón is not interested in straightforward intrigue and pulpy twists. He focuses on the impact and consequences of his characters’ actions. His sights are set on bigger questions about storytelling, narrative, and the elusive nature of an objective truth.

The show is technically brilliant, and Apple TV+ has spared no expense in letting Cuarón run wild with some gorgeous locations in Europe and Central London. The cinematography credit is shared by longtime collaborator and Oscar winner Emmanuel ‘Chivo’ Lubezki (Children of Men, Gravity), and Bruno Delbonnel (Amélie, Inside Llewyn Davis), possibly the most superpowered visual team ever assembled in any medium. And the results are stunning, featuring some lovingly long takes and almost distractingly beautiful backgrounds. Between Disclaimer and Ripley, it’s been a great year for television looking like (or even better than) film.

The lead performances are great, as expected. Blanchett is suitably brittle as a woman brought face to face with her past, and Kline is sublime as a grieving and vengeful widower. The best thing about Sacha Baron Cohen as Blanchett’s hapless husband is that he manages not to turn his performance into a ‘my wife’ punchline. But the real MVP of the show is the Ravenscroft cat, who owns every scene it is in. Cuarón’s stated intention in using the cat was to create chaos on his meticulously controlled and rehearsed sets, and it pays off in spades.

Final thoughts

Apple released the first two episodes together, and while they help ground the viewer in Cuarón’s intentions, they are a little indulgent. This leads us to the usual question when any auteur dips their toes in television—should this seven-episode series have been a movie? We’ll know in a few weeks when we get to the end, but meanwhile, it’s a very enjoyable and thought-provoking ride.

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