Disclaimer: Who is telling the truth?

So you think you know the truth? Disclaimer shows you how right or wrong you can be. 

The first episode establishes this: a young Englishman named Jonathan (Louis Partridge) travels to Italy on a train with his girlfriend Sasha (Liv Hill); Sasha cuts short her trip. On an Italian beach, Jonathan meets an older woman named Catherine Ravenscroft (Leila George) who is vacationing with her five-year-old son Nicholas. After their encounter, Jonathan ends up the way a parent never wants his child to end up. 

Narrated in the first, second and third persons by different characters, the first episode also spans 20 years, swinging back and forth from the past to the present. 

In the present, we see an older Catherine Ravenscroft (Cate Blanchett) receiving an award from no less than Christiane Amanpour (playing herself) for her adherence to truth in her work as a documentary writer. Catherine is stunningly beautiful, accomplished and celebrated — not just by critics but by colleagues. She is idolized by her co-workers.

Catherine’s husband Robert (Sacha Baron Cohen, known for his Borat “mockumentaries”) is a staid, nerdy rich man who enjoys good wine a lot. The total opposite of Borat, who I once thought was a non-fictional character. Imagine Borat an aristocratic Englishman!

Robert and Catherine have a son, Nicholas (Codi Smit McPhee), who Catherine has difficulty connecting with—the Great Wall of China seems to be standing between mother and son. Nicholas is obviously a troubled twentysomething. There is something that happened in the past between mother and son that has fragmented their bond. In Italy, perhaps?

Kevin Kline, another masterful actor, plays Jonathan’s father Stephen, and Lesley Manville (who played Princess Margaret in The Crown), is Jonathan’s mother Nancy.

Nancy writes a manuscript that is discovered by Stephen after her death. In the manuscript kept hidden in a locked drawer, she describes how Catherine, 20 years ago, seduced Jonathan like a cunning spider lures victims to its web. She is the sorceress, spewing the venom. Trapped, Jonathan is the hapless victim.

To avenge his son’s misfortune, Stephen gets Nancy’s book published under this title “The Perfect Stranger,” with this disclaimer: “Any resemblance to people living or dead is not a coincidence.” Stephen makes sure the book gets not just into Catherine’s hands, but in the hands of Robert, Nicholas and her (Catherine’s) colleagues.

***

Catherine ends up “cancelled” overnight—by her family, her friends and her co-workers. Her husband, who is first shown as adoring, throws her out of their house. At work, the very same people who gave her a standing ovation now talk behind her back. 

In the court of public opinion, this scenario has unfolded many times. I have seen it happen to prominent people—politicians, socialites, celebrities — especially because of the power of social media. Unsubstantiated allegations become truth because of the clout of the one telling it, or because of the clout of the one in the crosshairs of gossip. The higher you are, the harder you fall, as they say. Envy, like kindness, can go viral.

But there are also times when the truth, though painful and hard to believe, is the truth, despite efforts to embellish it or scrub a lie clean. 

“There is only one truth,” says my husband Ed.

Often, we watch the truth unfold in an arena with a circular stage, and we in the audience may have different points of view. Knives and shadows look different when viewed from different angles.

So, who is telling the truth in Disclaimer?

The parents of Jonathan or Catherine? 

In the final episode, Catherine’s voice is finally heard. She demands that it be heard. She delivers a 30-minute soliloquy. 

But that is her side. Like jurors, we have to discern the truth.

In the final scenes of the movie, a piece of evidence is discovered, literally rising from the ashes. The fiery lies are finally doused by the truth. 

Watch Disclaimer and find out who is really telling the truth. It is a cautionary tale.

“The truth shall set you free.” John 8:31-32