Disclaimer

Where can I buy the book "Perfect Strangers"? I'm really curious about its content. The young female lead is so seductive.

This was a tour de force, in my opinion. The cast, as a whole ensemble, were absolutely outstanding. Cuaron's cinematography is, as always, majestic in presentation and how he uses it to generate feeling and atmosphere.

For me, Kevin Kline was the highlight here. The nuances to his performance of a man driven almost completely insane from grief and hatred and the personas he uses in character are award worthy.

The weak point here, in places, is writing - not the writing of the dialogue, but some of the key plot points which feels hard to believe. While most explain themselves well there's a bit too much suspension of disbelief at some points, particularly where Katherine's work is concerned, and the behaviour of Robert early on. These are not flaws in the production so much as the source material I suspect.

Has anyone else noticed how well behaved the cats are in this? The cats are definitely after Emmy's.

This is just marvelous. The whole cast, the storytelling, the script, oh, and that gorgeous cinematography so wonderfully achieved by Cuarón and Lubezki that edges with perfection. It's like a seven part movie that moves your feelings from one way to another until the final part where you are left with the ugly truth.

What an amazing series! Cate Blanchet and Kevin Kline were both amazing!
This story is told so well and it makes the audience examine themselves too!

I was just watching a YouTube reaction to this series and then saw the comments and I have to say that with every day on this planet I loose more and more hope for humanity. Too many people trying to make Catherine the villain and make her at least partially responsible for what happened to her. One person even saying she left the key in the door on purpose, hoping he would come. 🙄
Others asking why she would go to the beach the next morning. OMG! This woman was trying to act normal and not traumatize her son!
She fell asleep because being raped is physically and emotionally draining!!
The perpetrator did not leave the resort because he had taken those pictures as insurance and he knew that she could not prove that it was not consensual. He made sure the pictures looked like she was willing and enjoying it. He probably stayed around to watch her and maybe planned to assault her again that night.
I think he jumped in the water to save her son because he knew that if that boy died she was would be an emotional mess and she would likely spill EVERYTHING that had happened to her in those last 24 hours, including the assault. Maybe also he figured that if he saved her son she might be more “willing”, when he came back that night. He was clearly deranged.
His mother was also clearly deranged too. She wrote an EXPLICIT book about what she IMAGINED her son did with this woman. Gross! And she KNEW what he was, because his girlfriend’s mother had called to tell her what he was!

[Venice '24] Alfonso Cuarón offers a game of perspectives in the form of a thriller that reflects on narratives in which truth is almost indistinguishable from lies. The reality of the protagonist is manipulated through a literary fiction that is based precisely on her reality. Using three narratives in which pasts and presents are mixed, he builds a story that manipulates perspectives to make the viewer an accomplice, but without deceiving him. Until it ends in a final block of three episodes that are a magnificent exercise in tension and moral questioning.

Why didn't you question it? Seven episodes can be concentrated into this one sentence.

Wow, this was really a great one!

I very nearly gave up on this series three episodes in, finding it to be disappointingly shallow and glossy despite the starry cast. I love a nice twisty psychological thriller but I have grown used to them and gradually becoming more and more disappointing as they tie themselves in knots trying to resolve everything. In this case, however, while it has still got exaggerated and contrived moments there's a terrific twist I hadn't expected in episode 6 that makes you want to go back through the whole series again and reevaluate it. It also raises towards the end issues well worth discussing and exploring. Episodes 6 and 7 alone raised this for me from 'meh' (despite a good cast) to a very good (though not quite great) bit of mainstream entertainment.

I need that finale now. They thought about the viewer's experience through each episode so hard. The way 7 episodes had to entertain, educate and expel the most complicated yet simple story I've known. It's based on a book, about a book, but most of all plays out like a book. Sparks starting bigger fires at the end of each episode like nail-biting, cliff-edging, toe-stubbing pages. If you like books or psychology, even drama then I would 200% recommend this. The casting and soundtrack make the mystery so good. 'Disclaimer' for a reason but I'm so glad it goes heavy on maturity. Throwing dilemmas into the 'deep end'. A slow burn silver spiel. Also, they finally got phones and social right.

Well, we finally hear the true story from Catherine, and what really happened. An eye opener indeed!
You have to feel so sorry for Stephen, who really believed in Catherine's guilt only to be shocked by the truth. So it seems that Nancy was a very good writer and her imagination ran wild in "The Perfect Stranger" which ruined life's and nearly led to murder.
Good story, interesting and intriguing. But you have to wait for the last episode to complete the picture and fill in the blanks. Also made me think about Jonathan's girlfriend who left very suddenly and who's mother was very curt with Nancy, makes you 🤔 think. Anyway, well worth a watch, but you have to be patient. :thumbsup_tone1: