‘Lady in the Lake’ Review: Moses Ingram Shines With Natalie Portman in Apple TV+ Drama

Ambitious in scope and execution, “Lady in the Lake,” like many Apple TV+ limited series, continues to break from formulaic Hollywood storytelling in favor of unconventional narratives that attract and challenge top-tier talent — this time, it’s Oscar winner Natalie Portman.

Adapted from reporter-turned-author Laura Lippman’s book of the same title, the seven-episode series set in Baltimore, where Lippman once worked at “The Baltimore Sun” and near where she grew up in Columbia, Maryland, is a labor of love for celebrated “Honeyboy” director and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Alma Har’el, whose many other roles include showrunner, co-writer as well as sole director.

More than a thriller or murder mystery, “Lady in the Lake” is a polemic story that explores the limited choices presented to women — one white and Jewish and the other Black — during the late 1960s with themes that strongly resonate today.

As dissatisfied housewife Maddie, who harkens back to her past pursuit of journalism to find more meaning and fulfillment in her life, Portman dares to remind us that women’s rights and privileges are still relatively new, even if presently endangered. The disappearance of Tessie, a young Jewish girl, inspired by the actual murder of 11-year-old Esther Lebowitz in Baltimore in 1969, becomes the catalyst that shakes Maddie out of her sleepwalk. As she pursues that story, despite having no official job to do so, she starts to confront various aspects of her past and present, leading her to question her marriage. Ensuing issues with her son Seth (Noah Jupe) point to the even higher price mothers pay for wanting more. Tessie’s death also results in Maddie crossing paths with Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram), whose later disappearance figures even more prominently in her life, professionally and personally.

Shirley Lee Parker, the real-life “lady in the lake” whose body was found in the fountain of a Baltimore park five weeks after she disappeared, is the series’ north star in more than name. Masterfully portrayed by Baltimore native Moses Ingram — best known for her Emmy-nominated role of Jolene in “The Queen’s Gambit” — Cleo borrows heavily from Parker’s complicated life working as a bookkeeper, barmaid and waitress at the Sphinx Club for the city’s Black elite as well as a secretary in a National Urban League branch office and an NAACP volunteer. Even before Maddie puts her full focus on Cleo, juicy details of her life begin to emerge. A serendipitous moment where she unexpectedly speaks up at an event for Myrtle Summer (Angela Robinson) puts her at odds with her boss, Baltimore kingpin Shell Gordon who runs the numbers game, today’s legal lottery that gives hope to many but financial breaks to relatively few. Summer is a counter to the crooked political figures that enable Shell’s criminal enterprise.

In Cleo’s life, Shell’s tentacles appear all-encompassing. He employs both her best friend Dora (Jennifer Mogbock), a gifted, drug-addicted singer also romantically entangled with his righthand man Reggie (Josiah Cross, “A Thousand and One”), and her husband Slappy (Byron Bowers), a comedian with whom she does not live despite their warm rapport and him fathering her two boys. Effortlessly portrayed by Wood Harris(“The Wire”), Shell, who prances in tailored suits with a distinctive swagger, is unquestionably the man. As a Negro or Black woman born impoverished, Cleo has even less choices than Maddie and can’t refuse Shell.

In fact, “Lady in the Lake’s” exploration of Maddie’s privilege as a white woman, even as she struggles to assert herself, greatly sets it apart. That her lover Ferdie (Y’lan Noel, “Insecure”), one of Baltimore’s rare Black cops with lots to lose, must remind her that in 1966 (a year prior to the game-changing 1967 Loving v. Virginia legalizing interracial marriage), she could be jailed and he worse for their relationship reveals how little race has impacted her life. Though her encounter with Ferdie is her first interracial one, it’s not her first tightrope with danger. How they meet even reveals that she is not above lying or using that privilege to get what she wants. She’s also not above using her feminine wiles to speak with Tessie’s presumed killer to further her career. The skeletons of her past also reveal just how early she indulged in forbidden desires and harbored damaging secrets. There’s little altruism in her dogged pursuit to tell Cleo’s story. Instead, it feeds white savior tropes meant to elevate her self-worth and professional profile more than any appeal to justice.

Fortunately, through a magnificent performance from Ingram, Cleo tells her own story with a power rarely seen on TV for a woman with so many decks stacked against her. Showing how Cleo lived lifts “Lady in the Lake” out of pedestrian thriller or murder mystery terrain. Sometimes the action gets so good on Cleo’s side of things that it’s bothersome when Maddie re-emerges. Har’el comes from music videos and that flashy sensibility is a boost in recreating the sexy and dangerous world Cleo inhabits. Costume designer Shioni Turini, who worked with none other than Beyoncé on her record-breaking “Renaissance” world tour, gives Cleo looks for days. From the eye-catching powder blue coat she wears during her unplanned downfall to the beautiful outfits she models in the department store window to make ends meet, not to mention the vibrant dress that surprisingly ties her to Maddie, Cleo is a vision in every situation, good or bad, she faces. Makeup, accessories and hair are always perfect. Unlike Maddie, Cleo never has an off day.

Still “Lady in the Lake” is not an easy watch. It takes a minute for it to gain its footing and rhythm. The fantasy scenes in the later episodes will undoubtedly spark criticism. Perhaps they derail the drama and tension viewers are used to experiencing, but it’s hard not to admire Har’el and her team’s commitment to tell a woman-centered story through a distinctly feminine aesthetic.

Portman should be commended for not giving in to vanity and the weight of her own stardom to play Maddie as a complex anti-hero who leaves more questions than answers. As for Ingram, she’s sheer perfection as Cleo and delivers one of the most nuanced performances of the year.

“Lady in the Lake” premieres Friday, July 19, on Apple TV+.

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