DUBAI: In Apple TV+’s excellent drama-thriller miniseries “Lady in the Lake,” Natalie Portman becomes the latest major movie star to make the move to television.
Portman plays Maddie Schwartz, a discontented Jewish housewife living in Baltimore in the 1960s. Maddie used to harbor dreams of becoming a journalist, but instead married the overbearing and abusive — at least verbally — Milton (played by Brett Gelman of “Stranger Things” fame) and became a stay-at-home mom to their son Seth (Noah Jupe), now a teenager. When a young girl, Tessie, goes missing during the Thanksgiving Day parade, Maddie becomes obsessed with finding her (which she does, though Tessie is dead) and, in the process, makes the decision to leave her husband and dedicate her time to trying to solve Tessie’s murder. In the process, her life converges with that of Cleo (Moses Ingram), a Black woman who is working three jobs to try and lift her children out of poverty, unaided by her feckless husband, an aspiring standup comedian. When — spoiler alert, kind of — Cleo’s body is found near the same lake as Tessie’s, Maddie continues her rise as a reporter at the Baltimore Sun by involving herself in that investigation too.
Portman shouldn’t have felt too out of place filming “Lady in the Lake.” Showrunner Alma Har’el’s adaptation of Laura Lippman’s novel is a heavily stylized, sometimes surreal, cinematic experience that suggests the budget can’t be too far below that of a big-budget movie. The greatest surprise, perhaps, is that the star of the show, at least based on the first two episodes, is not Portman (who is, nevertheless, excellent), but Ingram, whose portrayal of Cleo is a magnetic blend of confidence, vulnerability, courage, anxiety, street smarts, and wit. Awards will surely be coming her way.
“Lady in the Lake” is hugely impressive and confident in terms of performance, directing, writing, and aesthetic. But it won’t be for everyone. It’s also very dense and takes its time building its characters’ worlds. And it’s not just a straightforward thriller; it also addresses hot-button topics such as race, privilege, oppression, institutionalized injustice and more. So “easily accessible” this is not. But once you’re drawn in, it’s some of the most engrossing television you’ll see this year.
