Natalie Portman’s ‘Lady in the Lake’ Misfire Is a Puzzle No One Will Care to Solve: TV Review
variety.comAramide Tinubu Based on the novel by Laura Lippman and adapted for television by Alma Har’el, “Lady in the Lake” on Apple TV+ is a story about women’s ambition, and what happens when those aspirations are denied.
Set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1966, the series revolves around two women. Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman) is a Jewish housewife and mother desperate to break free from her monotonous existence, and chase her lifelong goal of becoming a journalist.
Across town, Cleo Johnson (Moses Ingram), a young Black mother, is determined to make a better life for her two sons. However, as her husband Slappy (Byron Bowers) seeks his comedy dreams, Cleo is relegated to working as a department store window model, bartending and keeping the books for prolific gangster Shell Gordon (Wood Harris).
Though the women initially live parallel lives, their worlds collide on Thanksgiving Day. Despite intriguing characters and settings, “Lady in the Lake” never becomes the noir thriller it could have been.
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