Bier shrewdly contributes to the mystery by occasionally showing us Jonathan as Grace remembers or imagines him. We know from Bier’s other work, including the films After the Wedding and the Oscar-winning In a Better World, that she elicits vibrant performances from her supporting cast. The minor characters in The Undoing are almost as slippery as Jonathan, including Lily Rabe as Grace’s best friend and Donald Sutherland as her ultra-rich father. In another rare but delectable moment of camp, the camera closes in on Sutherland’s face as, in a calm and well-bred voice, he threatens to ruin someone’s life.
Among all this mystery, Noma Dumezweni is refreshingly direct as Haley, a truth-telling lawyer who informs Grace that the police believe she’s hiding something. Why would they think that? “Because it’s what rich, entitled people do,” Haley says. Sure, it has themes of class and privilege, but The Undoing is really as weightless and as delightful as the soap bubbles that float across the screen in the opening credits.
★★★★★
The Undoing premieres on 25 October on HBO in the US and 26 October on Sky Atlantic/Now TV in the UK.
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