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Disclaimer Is a Flaccid, Pretentious Slog
Alfonso Cuarón’s first episodic outing takes all the wrong lessons from prestige TV.
On the other stands Stephen Brigstocke (Kevin Kline), a bitter old man practically waiting to die after losing his wife, Nancy (Lesley Manville), when he discovers a novel she secretly wrote about their son, Jonathan (Louis Partridge), who drowned years ago at the same Italian beach where the Ravenscrofts were then vacationing. Disclaimer hold its cards fairly close to the vest regarding what actually happened between these characters on that fateful day, but we get the sense from the jump that it involved an intimate encounter between Jonathan and the much older, very married Catherine (played in flashbacks by Leila George, who has the misfortune of looking nothing like Blanchett). The script is littered with excessively verbose turns of phrase: “The book was a work of fiction, but it released the truth from its ballast, allowing it to rise to the surface.” Cuarón’s signature visual style, which favors active, roving camerawork, frequently calls attention to the scenes’ placidity.
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