Disclaimer (stylized as Disclaimer*) is a 2024 psychological erotic thriller miniseries created, written, and directed by Alfonso Cuarón, based on the 2015 novel of the same name by Renée Knight. It stars Cate Blanchett and Leila George as documentarian Catherine Ravenscroft, and Kevin Kline as an elderly widower who forces Ravenscroft to confront her past. The supporting cast includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Louis Partridge and Lesley Manville, with Indira Varma as narrator.
Disclaimer made its debut at the 81st Venice International Film Festival before premiering on Apple TV+ on October 11, 2024, with its first two episodes. It received generally positive reviews from critics. Both Kline and Blanchett garnered nominations at the Golden Globes, SAG, Critics Choice, and Satellite Awards; Blanchett would later receive an Emmy nomination.
Catherine Ravenscroft, a famed documentary journalist, discovers she is a prominent character in a novel that purports to reveal a secret she has tried to keep hidden.
The story is revealed in a non-linear fashion with scenes alternating between a holiday in Italy (young CatherineâÂÂs encounter with Jonathan) and back home in London twenty years later (the truth emerges). The series also uses the technique of unreliable narrator in that the events in Italy are told twice: first from Nancy's speculative point of view and later from Catherine's first person experience.
In December 2021, it was announced that Alfonso Cuarón was writing and directing a series for Apple TV+, with Cate Blanchett and Kevin Kline starring and Emmanuel Lubezki and Bruno Delbonnel serving as cinematographers. In February 2022, Kodi Smit-McPhee joined the cast while Sacha Baron Cohen entered negotiations for a role. Cohen was confirmed the following month, with HoYeon Jung also added to the cast. Louis Partridge joined the cast in May, and Lesley Manville joined the next month. Leila George was added to the cast in October.
Filming for the series had begun by June 2022 in Archway, London; Tuscany, Venice, and finished production in February 2023.
Disclaimer was screened at the 81st Venice International Film Festival on August 29, 2024, the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9 (in the Primetime program), and the 2024 BFI London Film Festival on October 10 as a special event . It premiered on October 11, 2024, on Apple TV+, with the first two episodes available immediately and then two on October 18, 2024, then one a week, until November 8, 2024.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the series has an approval rating of 76% with an average rating of 7.4/10, based on 99 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "An intelligent offering from a dream team of talent that also dishes some plain pulpy pleasures, Disclaimer is a dense and rewarding psychological puzzle." Metacritic calculated a weighted average of 70 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.