ABOVE AVERAGE

THE PAST ALWAYS FINDS YOU.

A book ends up in the hands of a prominent journalist (Cate Blanchett); to her great horror, it aims to expose a secret she’s kept hidden for many years.

A limited series that delivers in many ways. It’s a gorgeously filmed thriller that initially takes us along for a ride that tries to balance tragedy with a lustful, seductive affair that looks like it comes straight out of the imagination of a horny teen. That’s far from all there is to this story though and its deception is cleverly staged.

Would benefit from tighter editing, but still compelling, with terrific performances from the two leads; Kevin Kline is a joy to watch as the obsessive widower.

2024-U.S.-Australia-Mexico. 351 min. Color. Written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón. Novel: Renee Knight. Cinematography: Bruno Delbonnell, Emmanuel Lubezki. Cast: Cate Blanchett (Catherine Ravenscroft), Kevin Kline (Stephen Brigstocke), Sacha Baron Cohen (Robert Ravenscroft), Lesley Manville, Louis Partridge, Leila George. 

Trivia: Originally shown in seven episodes. Co-executive produced by Blanchett and Cuarón. 

Last word: “It was very challenging because it was like, ‘How many pages is that?’ It’s long, more than 20 pages, maybe 30 pages, something like that. And it was a long scene, this confrontation between the two of them, that we had to block and to map out the different emotional movements and then to play it over and over and over, because it’s a scene that we have several different angles. So it was really exhausting for everyone.” (Cuarón on the finale’s confrontation between Blanchett and Kline, Collider)