The Big Picture

Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram excel in portraying complex characters in Apple TV+’s
Lady in the Lake
, making their performances captivating and nuanced.
Alma Har’el’s direction successfully maintains pacing, ramping up tension in a stellar third act.
The show tackles racism and prejudice, offering a pertinent look at the challenges faced by oppressed communities.

A journalist’s duty is to tell stories that a given community or population needs to know. In pursuit of the next headline, a reporter must question whether an event is worth recounting and determine whether it is timely enough. These thoughts crowd Lady in the Lake’s Maddie Schwartz (Natalie Portman), a housewife turned investigative reporter who is drawn to a case involving a missing girl. The urge to do something with her life other than keep the house clean and cook on a full-time basis drives her to leave everything behind and trust her instincts about the girl’s whereabouts. This risky decision soon becomes the catalyst for her to continue her pursuit of answers, rewriting her life’s purpose in the process. In the span of seven episodes, the Apple TV+ original inspects the segregated society of late ’60s Baltimore through Maddie and Cleo’s (Moses Ingram) perspectives. Despite its slow start, Lady in the Lake picks up speed toward its latter half, with intriguing parallels between these protagonists as they seek to break free from norms and impositions.

Lady in the Lake In 1960s Baltimore, an unsolved murder drives a housewife to reinvent herself as an investigative journalist. Her path crosses with a dedicated mother navigating the political landscape of Black Baltimore, leading to a collision course that unearths deep-seated secrets and puts both their lives in jeopardy.Release Date July 19, 2024 Cast Natalie Portman , Moses Ingram , Y’lan Noel , Mikey Madison , Brett Gelman , Noah Jupe Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Cinematographer Lachlan Milne Distributor Apple TV+ Producer Julie Gardner, Nathan Ross Production Company Crazyrose, Bad Wolf America, Zusa, MountainA, Endeavor Content Writers Laura Lippman Expand

What Is ‘Lady in the Lake’ About?

Based on Laura Lippman’s best-selling thriller, Lady in the Lake begins with Maddie noticing a stain on her outfit and walking into the first clothing store she sees. Having spotted a beautiful yellow dress in the window display, worn by Cleo (whose many hats include working as a real-life mannequin), Maddie asks one of the store’s employees whether she can buy it. The sales representative later returns to tell her that the only dress available is the one Cleo is wearing, which isn’t enough of an excuse to make her back down from purchasing it. Little does Maddie know that the woman in the window will be the same person who becomes the subject of a story she eventually tells.

Maddie and Cleo have seemingly opposite lives at the beginning of the series, with the first a Jewish stay-at-home wife and mother who is financially stable and the second a Black wife and mother working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Yet, as the women’s stories unfold, their stark realities become more and more similar; Maddie leaves her home and fights for her own independence as a reporter, while Cleo accidentally becomes involved in an assassination attempt that puts her life at risk. As a result, when the protagonists’ journeys converge, one is left to wonder whether there was an invisible string tying them to each other all along.

Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram Play Two Sides of the Same Coin on ‘Lady in the Lake’

Portman and Ingram receive most of Lady in the Lake’s screen time, and it is an understatement to say that the duo’s appearances are incredibly gripping. Much like her character in May December, Portman plays a woman who is constantly eager to observe the people around her and piling on information to further her career prospects. Yet, underneath Maddie’s drive to get her own byline is a person with several ghosts in her closet. Portman deftly conveys Maddie’s sometimes selfish pursuit of success and her rebellious past. However, despite the character looking to both solve a murder mystery and be the first to report on it, the series doesn’t focus too much on her experiences. Although the flashbacks create more understanding for Maddie, her rocky relationship with her son Seth (Noah Jupe) doesn’t earn the development it should. Instead of filling in the blanks about Maddie’s backstory and how that affects her bond with her only child, Lady in the Lake switches to a deeper look at Cleo’s trajectory as a part-time bartender, part-time bookkeeper, and part-time window display model.

When not showing up for her multiple shifts, Cleo tries to educate and nurture her sons (one who is very ill) and pressures her husband into being more responsible professionally and at home. Ingram’s character holds onto her dignity (a key word that she utters in a breathtaking scene) and is constantly outpouring her energy to keep everyone else in check, never finding the right opportunity to delve into her own hopes and dreams. An Emmy-nominated actress known for her performance in The Queen’s Gambit, Ingram is a revelation in this role, even making Cleo’s quest for freedom more compelling than Maddie’s. Lady in the Lake also deconstructs the character’s multiple facets, fears, and fights in a way that makes Cleo both the voice of reason (Ingram is the show’s narrator) and the main star.

Alma Har’el’s Direction Keeps ‘Lady in the Lake’s Plot Moving
Image via Apple TV +

On top of the magnetic leads, Lady in the Lake maintains audience investment in the plot’s ever-growing momentum. Although the first few episodes serve as more of a slow-paced introduction to Maddie and Cleo’s motives, the last three in particular really keep the tension at an all-time high, with vivid dream sequences and an energetic roll-out of revelations. This can largely be credited to writer and director Alma Har’el, who directs all seven episodes and maintains a clear-cut vision of the show’s beginning, middle, and end. As someone with few TV credits under her belt, it is incredible how well Har’el navigates the complex overlap between these two women’s stories and those around them, in particular Cleo’s husband Slappy (Byron Bowers) and her co-worker Reggie (Josiah Cross).

Har’el also uses the setting and time period at the center of Lady in the Lake to tackle racism and prejudice among the Jewish and Black communities of the era. Although Maddie’s slim features help her origins to be less recognizable at a glance, she still suffers from prejudice as a single mother living in a Black neighborhood and working for a newspaper predominantly staffed with men. Cleo’s skin color makes her journey that much harder to traverse than Maddie’s because of the amount of segregation at that moment in time in Baltimore. Lady in the Lake is also visually and aurally engaging, capturing the aesthetics and musical influences of the decade. Every single frame carries attention to detail, whether through the protagonists’ big hairdos and polished makeup or the effervescent jazz songs that Dora Carter (Jennifer Mogbock) performs at the live music bar. It all works together to make the series an immersive experience, often adding even more historical and cultural context to the story than the plot itself.

Overall, Lady in the Lake is made for those viewers who are into psychological thrillers, set in a not-so-distant past, that offer a complex character study. Maddie and Cleo’s journeys and how they intersect aren’t simple to comprehend, requiring the viewer to pay closer attention in sorting through their traumas and the motives that lead them to their fates. Filled with several powerful performances (particularly from Portman and Ingram), dilemmas that sadly still ring true, and visual and musical elements that contribute to the series’ lavish look, this Apple TV+ original might not appeal to the masses, but it’s still a production that excels through distinct attention to detail.

Review Lady in the Lake Lady in the Lake is a vivid depiction of ’60s Baltimore, following two magnetic leads in Natalie Portman and Moses Ingram.Release Date July 19, 2024 Cast Natalie Portman , Moses Ingram , Y’lan Noel , Mikey Madison , Brett Gelman , Noah Jupe Main Genre Drama Seasons 1 Cinematographer Lachlan Milne Distributor Apple TV+ Producer Julie Gardner, Nathan Ross Production Company Crazyrose, Bad Wolf America, Zusa, MountainA, Endeavor Content Writers Laura Lippman ProsPortman and Ingram tap into all the facets of their characters with nuanced performances.Lady in the Lake offers a relevant look at racism and prejudice in oppressed communities.The series is visually and aurally appealing. ConsQuestions surrounding Maddie’s past remain open, and prevent her relationship with her son from being fully developed. Expand

Lady in the Lake premieres July 19 on Apple TV+.

Watch on Apple TV+