Lady In The Lake, an adaptation of Laura Lippman’s best-selling novel, marks Portman’s TV debut …
Based on The New York Times best-selling novel of the same name by Laura Lippman, Lady In The Lake is the new Apple TV+ series that not only marks Natalie Portman’s first foray into prestige television, it blends a scintillating murder-mystery with the glamour (or, perhaps, decaying) glamour of the 1960s. With her artful flick-up bob, Portman looks familiar in a period setting, having played Jackie Kennedy in the 2016 biopic Jackie – however that’s where the similarity ends. Where Jackie was wistful, tragic, Lady In The Lake is eerie, with vague flickers of horror. However, both stories explore neglected ambition in women – and, in the case of the latter, what happens when that is denied.
What’s the plot? Set in Baltimore, Maryland in 1966, Lady In The Lake follows Maddie Schwartz (Portman), a middle-class Jewish housewife looking to find agency as an investigative journalist. Maddie becomes obsessed with the disappearance of a young girl in their community: so much so that she abandons her husband and son to try and crack the story. It also follows the life of Cleo Johnson (played by Moses Ingram) an African-American mother struggling to make ends meet. While at first, the two women’s lives seem entirely disparate, their paths converge around the disappearance of the young girl – and a sinister tale unfolds.
Watch the trailer for the mini-series, starring Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram, below:
Irish viewers can watch Lady In The Lake on Apple TV+ now.