'Disclaimer' with Cate Blanchett is far more fun than you think it'll be

It’s tempting to talk about “Disclaimer,” a new limited series on Apple TV+ from two-time Oscar-winning director Alfonso Cuarón, as a commentary on cancel culture, or even journalism ethics and standards.

Which it is, a little bit. But Cuarón strikes only glancing blows at those hot-button issues, instead leaning hard into a creepy mystery that unfolds over the course of the series, and it’s a lot more fun for it. A cast that includes Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen and Leslie Manville doesn’t hurt.

Based on the 2015 novel by Renée Knight, the seven-part series focuses on Catherine Ravenscroft, surely the most British-sounding name since Leslie Manville. She is an award-winning journalist, a documentarian — in fact, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour is giving her an award as the show begins, at a swanky dinner she and her wealthy husband Robert (Baron Cohen) attend.

Cate Blanchett, Sacha Baron Cohen star in 'Disclaimer'

Robert has later-in-life become a wine snob. While he extols the latest vintage he’s acquired, Catherine checks the mail, where she finds a slim novel: “The Perfect Stranger.” She takes it to bed and begins reading. She doesn’t recognize the author.

But she certainly recognizes the story. It is a thinly veiled account of something that happened earlier in their lives, when their now-ne'er-do-well son Nicolas (Kodi Smit-McPhee) was a child. If you’re wondering how she is portrayed, after reading a few pages she runs to the bathroom to throw up.

Without revealing too much, the character in the book has an affair with a young man while on vacation with her family, after her husband is called back home. In flashback we see Catherine (played in these scenes by Leila George) with a younger man, Jonathan (Louis Partridge), who later drowns. Catherine sees a lot of herself in the character, and before long Robert and her employers and seemingly everyone in London believe she is the callous monster depicted in the book.

But who sent it? We know early on: Stephen Brigstocke (Kline, English accent employed). He’s Jonathan’s father; his wife Nancy (Manville) was destroyed by their son’s death. She holed up in his bedroom; unbeknownst to Stephen, she was writing the novel. He found it after she died of cancer, had it published and made sure all the right people, at least from his perspective, read it.

What happens next is predictable, and in case you can’t figure it out, Catherine’s assistant screams it at the top of her lungs as her boss walks to the elevator: “YOU ARE SO CANCELED!” And just like that, her seemingly perfect life collapses — just as Stephen intends.

Alfonso Cuarón won't let the audience off easy

If it seems like it all works too well, guess what? It does. Cuarón, who wrote and directed all seven episodes, was never going to let any of these characters off that easy. More importantly, he wasn’t going to let the audience off that easy. Some of the characters’ motivations and reactions don’t always make sense, though in fairness, they’re all in various states of grief and shock.

What seems like a cut-and-dried case is revealed to have layers upon layers. It isn’t a matter of everything you know is wrong as much as it is a reminder — a warning — not to jump to conclusions. And if you think that explains how things play out, you’re wrong. It doesn’t.

And so what if it did? It’s still mesmerizing to see Blanchett’s Catherine slowly unravel, to see Baron Cohen’s Robert overreact and, especially, to see Kline’s Robert scheme, plan, putz around and more. The small gestures of delight he makes when he plants, as he says, one of his grenades, are brilliant. Not exactly underplayed, but brilliant, still.

It’s all beautifully shot, which is no surprise. And if it isn’t quite as deep as you might have hoped, no matter. Because it’s a lot more fun than it could have been.

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How to watch 'Disclaimer'

First two episodes stream Friday, Oct. 11 on Apple TV+, the next two on Friday, Oct. 18 and the rest weekly after that.

Reach Goodykoontz at bill.goodykoontz@arizonarepublic.com . Facebook: facebook.com/GoodyOnFilm . X: @goodyk . Subscribe to the weekly movies newsletter .

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: 'Disclaimer' with Cate Blanchett is far more fun than you think it'll be