Natalie Portman’s ‘Lady in the Lake’ Is a Soggy, Pretentious Failure
Boldness is often a storytelling virtue…except when it’s not, as is the case with Lady in the Lake.
An adaptation of Laura Lippman’s 2020 best-seller of the same name (whose title is borrowed from Raymond Chandler’s 1943 classic), director Alma Har'el’s seven-part Apple TV+ period-piece murder mystery, premiering July 19, indulges in non-stop fanciful embellishments, symbolism, dream sequences, and cross-cutting. All of this quickly grates on the nerves (and senses) and, worse still, fails to distract attention away from the plot’s convoluted busyness and nonsensicality. Led by a Natalie Portman performance that’s as exaggerated as the rest of the florid action, it bites off so much more than it can chew that it’s no surprise when it chokes during its finale.
(Warning: Spoilers ahead.)