Disclaimer Review: Masterclass in Slow-Burning Storytelling

Alfonso Cuarón’s Apple TV+ series Disclaimer shows us how easy it is to believe a story when it fits the narrative we made up in our minds.

It all starts with a manuscript that’s delivered to Catherine’s house: it’s from an unknown author, dedicated “to my son, Jonathan,” and its first page reads “any resemblance to persons living or dead is not a coincidence”. It’s also no coincidence that the book was delivered to Catherine’s house, as the woman soon realizes that she’s already familiar with the story it tells. Titled “The Perfect Stranger,” the manuscript tells a dark secret from her own past that she had spent her entire life hiding, and that she thought no living person knew about. As we are introduced to Catherine and her family – her wine-loving husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen, of The Trial of the Chicago 7) and her loner son Nicholas (Kodi Smit-McPhee, of The Power of the Dog) – the book becomes an invasive presence that follows her everywhere, until finding the author becomes an obsession.

But we are also given access to other players in this tale, whose exact roles in the story are only revealed at the very end. There’s Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline), a grieving man who finds a series of items that belonged to his late wife (Lesley Manville) that send him down a rabbit hole of his own; there are two teenagers in love – Jonathan (Louis Partridge, of Enola Holmes) and Sasha (Liv Hill) – who have been having their best time while on holiday in Italy. And then there’s a woman in her thirties (Leila George), who’s on holiday with her son, and who crosses paths with Jonathan at a key point in both their lives.

To make things even more complicated for the audience, not all of these characters belong to the same timeline, and not only do we not know which ones live in the present and which in the past till at least three episodes into the series, but how exactly they’re all connected to each other is unclear till the very end. Yet, we cannot help but be drawn to each and everyone of them, soon becoming just as obsessed with solving the puzzle as Catherine is. As more and more pieces are revealed, the tension rises and the stakes get even higher, until we finally understand that we, too, have been played all along.

Disclaimer is a series you want to go in knowing as little as you can about who its characters are and how they are related to one another. The show asks you to be patient for at least its four episodes, but when things are set in motion, you’ll realize that nothing was left to chance. Every single, seemingly unimportant detail is there for a reason, and when you finally connect the dots, you’ll be able to appreciate just how complex and thought-provoking – not to mention gripping and tense – this series is, and what exactly it’s trying to tell you.

“I was so happy when she got what she deserved,” an acquaintance who’s read the manuscript tells Catherine halfway through the show, talking about the book’s protagonist, unaware that it’s Catherine herself, “She’s so awful.” As more and more characters become aware of our protagonist’s past and are shown her true colors, we also get to experience some of the chapters and start forming our own opinion. And when we finally find out the truth, Cuarón’s haunting message shines through: it’s easy to believe strangers over friends or even family when their versions of a story already fit the narrative you’ve made up in your head.

Disclaimer is a series that tackles many themes, from how easy it is to pass our own trauma onto our children to the assumptions we make about others based on their looks or gender; from how manipulation can work in subtle ways to how easy it can be to mistake shame for guilt, and more. It’s a series that gives you plenty of twists and turns that you didn’t see coming, including some haunting lines you won’t be able to get out of your head. But it also contains the kind of healthy resolutions of conflicts that we so desperately need to see in film and TV right now, such as a character realising and admitting that they were wrong when they’re hit with “the realisation that maybe we should stop blaming others for the mistakes we made.”

It also helps that Disclaimer is stunning. Cinematographers Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki (Gravity) and Bruno Delbonnel (Inside Llewyn Davis) make it impossible for us to take our eyes off the screen, delivering the kind of immersive storytelling that completely envelops you in it, making it feel as if this were a slightly longer movie instead of a seven-episode series. The gorgeous long shots, a Cuarón trademark, place us in the frame with the characters; the soft, desaturated color palette make everything feel more tangible and real, as if we could touch it if we reached out a hand; the lighting gives it all a dreamlike quality that goes hand in hand with the overall message of the show.

Given the talent involved, it’s no surprise that the acting is excellent, starting with Cate Blanchett, who manages to make us despise her character, find her relatable, and even move us to tears at different points of the series. Louis Partridge and Leila George both succeed in the impossible task of playing at least two versions of the same character, and it’s the way they approached a few specific scenes in the latter half of the series that makes it all work as well as it does. Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, and Lesley Manville have slightly less screen time but they all manage to leave a mark and make their character well-rounded and believable.

But the standout is Kevin Kline, who manages to make his character adorable, relatable, hilarious, creepy, disturbing, and everything in between, and demands our attention in every single scene he’s in. There are scenes where you’ll want to channel his energy and you’ll find yourself mouthing “boom!” to yourself alongside his character, eagerly waiting to find out what his actions will lead to. But then you’ll start to discover other sides of his personality, and you’ll experience conflicting feelings that will make your watching experience all the more enthralling.

There are no heroes or villains in Disclaimer, but simply human beings doing what they think is right at various moments of their lives, and dealing with the consequences of their actions, many years later, in the only way they know how to. Alfonso Cuarón brings Renée Knight’s novel to live in mesmerizing fashion, with a masterclass in slow-burning storytelling that keeps on delivering till the very end. It’s a must watch, and one of the best series of the year.

Disclaimer had its World Premiere at the Venice Film Festival on August 29-30, 2024 and will be available to stream on Apple TV+ from October 11, 2024. Read our interview with Leila George, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Louis Partridge!