HBO has now accustomed the public to high quality products and with The Undoing the premises for just reading the cast are excellent. The mini-series with Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland and Matilda De Angelis has left everyone in suspense but will it have convinced us? Here is the review of The Undoing, available on Sky Atlantic and NowTV
ORIGINAL TITLE: The Undoing. GENRE: thriller. COUNTRY: United States. DIRECTOR: Susanne Bier. CAST: Nicole Kidman, Hugh Grant, Donald Sutherland, Matilda De Angelis. DURATION: 6 episodes, 50 mins approx. DISTRIBUTOR: Sky Atlantic. RELEASE: January 8, 2021.
The Undoing: The Unsaid Truths is a miniseries produced by HBO based on the novel Una Famiglia Felice by Jean Hanff Korelitz published in Italy in 2016.
The plot | The Undoing Review
Grace and Jonathan Fraser are two established doctors from New York: she is a psychotherapist, he is a pediatric oncologist. They live on the Upper East Side with their son, who attends a private school in Manhattan. It all begins to crumble when one of the school’s mothers is found massacred in her art studio and Jonhatan becomes the prime suspect. There will be many unspoken truths that will be discovered and nothing will be as it seems.
A refined thriller | The Undoing Review
The Undoing is one of those series that you come across and can’t stop watching until you get to the end. The plot is interesting and keeps you breathless, it leads the viewer to question even your own intuition, leaving traces that continually contradict each other, you get to suspect everyone and no one, and the epilogue is something you don’t expect. only for what turns out to be the culprit but also for the incredible implications that it carries with it. The script is good, it has some less tense or less brilliant points, but it is physiological that it happens in products with a yellow and mystery background. The direction is very good, particular, not obvious. There director seems “inspired” by the character of Nicole Kidman, follows him closely, often close enough to catch her iris when new information is revealed as if waiting for the exact moment when the eye will show surprise or anger.
The cast is incredible, refined, talented starting from Kidman, in fact, but in particular Hugh Grant leaves really amazed. By managing to play a controversial, contradictory, apparently loving and empathetic man, then revealing much more. Excellent surprise also Matilda De Angelis who after the adorable role in L’isola delle Rose alongside Elio Germano, lands in an international production leaving everyone amazed.
A few holes in the plot | The Undoing Review
The series, however beautiful and engaging, still has some errors, the first, but more negligible, is the dubbing, in particular Matilda De Angelis who wanted to dub herself making your character lose depth and greatly flattening the acting and perception in Italian rather than in the original.
The second most obvious mistake is the lack of insight into the characters. No background is given, certain dynamics or characteristics are not explained. Many concepts are left without the right narrative collocation and in the end the personal stories are incomplete and devoid of satisfaction for the viewer.
Conclusion
The Undoing is a really interesting mini-series, of high level, capable of thrilling the public leaving them with bated breath right up to the last second. The topics covered are many and what is most emphasized is how much it is not possible to truly know someone fully even though they have known them all their life. Love, trust, fear, doubts, all that the protagonists have to face are extremely familiar to anyone but they are told with a particularly interesting spark. Last but not least, the costumes. Nicole Kidman with this series has created a real trend of the season with beautiful coats and an elegant and feminine style, never ostentatious but perfect to not go unnoticed.
Don’t even trust yourself
Points in favor
- Excellent cast
- Intriguing script
- Pathos high to the end
- Refined costumes
Points against
- Italian dubbing
- Little insight into the characters