by Eric Blume
We at The Film Experience couldn't let an opportunity go by without posting about the new AppleTV series Disclaimer since it stars two-time Oscar winner Cate Blanchett, Oscar winner Kevin Kline, and Oscar nominees Lesley Manville, Sacha Baron Cohen, and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Plus, it's written and dirtected by mutli-Oscar winner Alfonso Cuarón (who's won Oscars for Directing, Editing, and Cinemtography).
That's a highly-pedigreed project, and this group of artists have created a probing, sometimes bizarre, curious, and difficult piece of television. There is no way to have any deep discussion about this project until you've seen it all the way through. So I won't divulge the turns and ambitions of Disclaimer too much, but if you haven't seen it at all, stop reading now...even a cursory dive into the show requires a few reveals...
The good news is that Disclaimer is trying for something very sophisticated and interesting, not just weaving narration through its three main characters, but giving each different voices. Kline's story is narrated in first-person; Cohen's in third-person; and Blanchett's in second-person. I've tried to think of any film told in second-person narration, and I can't think of one? Help me, readers! I'm sure there are a few out there, but suffice it to say, second-person narration in film is rare...it's awkward and self-conscious, and not something we're accustomed to seeing.
Disclaimer exists to use these different voices to drive and contrast the storytelling, to challenge viewer's notions of truth and agency, and does so to sometimes devastating effect. I found its "literary" approach fascinating, but I was surprised that so many of my smart cinephile friends found all the narration insufferable and undramatic. Even though they reconsidered some of this by the finale episode of the show, the fact remains that watching this show is a frustrating and disorienting experience. It all comes together in the end, and that re-examination of your experience at the end of the series is, indeed, the POINT of the program, but it is a very odd viewing experience.
It's great fun seeing Kevin Kline have something so meaty to do onscreen...he's grossly underutilized in movies, and he gives Disclaimer a nice dirty-joke feel as he gleefully tries to take down Blanchett. Blanchett here is in far tighter quarters than the usual scale-climbing she often gets to do, but her performance is calibrated razor-sharp, and when she finally gets her big moments, she delivers. The sheer power of Blanchett is sometimes stupefying. She takes on a sort of Greek-theater grandness in the final episode that she pulls off with aplomb. Manville, Cohen, and Smit-McPhee (who was criminally robbed of that Oscar a few years back) all register in small roles, but they don't have the big scenes you may want to see from them.
Ultimately, I found Disclaimer to be a triumph, but of a very specific variety. You're held at a distance, and the show has a clinical feel to it that keeps the experience purely intellectual. I can see it being very divisive, as it strays from traditional storytelling and is a bit of bumpy ride throughout. But what about you? Have you watched Disclaimer? What are your thoughts?