Natalie Portman appears to be, like other Oscar winners, happily reaping the pluses of the streaming realm. She recently popped over to Netflix for May December, and now, she’s stepping onto Apple TV+ for the adaptation of one of Laura Lippmann’s most popular novels, Lady in the Lake.
Lippmann’s books tend to dip into modern noir in an irresistible way (Sunburn, which pays homage to Double Indemnity, will not be leaving my head anytime soon), and with Lady in the Lake, Apple TV+ is adding to its collection of suspense-thriller adaptations. It goes without saying that this is the way, so to speak, to harnessing an enthused audience. Let’s get down to business on what to expect from this limited series.
Plot
The series follows Natalie Portman as a seemingly privileged 1960s housewife, Maddie, who leaves her lackluster marriage and starts poking around in the unsolved murder of a Black woman. The series’ full trailer, as with the book, suggests a metaphorical echoing of Maddie’s struggles in the case of Cleo Johnson (portrayed by Moses Ingram), who went missing (in the novel, of which Stephen King was a fan upon release) after a date. Her body went undiscovered for at least a full season before becoming known as the “Lady in the Lake,” due to Maddie’s investigative efforts.
It remains to be seen how closely the series will adhere to the book’s setup, which can be distilled as a crime story if a reader squints hard, but the stills provided thus far suggest ghostly dives into the past and a willingness to lean into the surreal.
Apple TV+ has billed this series, directed by Alma Har’el, “as a feverish noir thriller and an unexpected tale of the price women pay for their dreams.” That hits hard, and here’s more from the series synopsis:
When the disappearance of a young girl grips the city of Baltimore on Thanksgiving 1966, the lives of two women converge on a fatal collision course. Maddie Schwartz is a Jewish housewife seeking to shed a secret past and reinvent herself as an investigative journalist, and Cleo Johnson is a mother navigating the political underbelly of Black Baltimore while struggling to provide for her family. Their disparate lives seem parallel at first, but when Maddie becomes fixated on Cleo’s mystifying death, a chasm opens that puts everyone around them in danger.
Cast
Natalie Portman will portray Maddie Schwartz, and Moses Ingram picks up the mantle of Cleo Johnson.
Release Date
This series will debut on July 19, 2024 with two episodes with weekly one-episode drops thereafter.
Trailer
The next few minutes begin in unsettling-mystery mode, and then somehow, fish tanks start exploding. Looks riveting!