Review 427: Big Little Lies

Big Little Lies is an engrossing miniseries, one that will keep you hooked until the very last frame.

Based on the novel Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty, In the tranquil seaside town of Monterey, California, nothing is quite what it seems.

Director Jean-Marc Vallee's direction is, the cinematography is gorgeous and captures the beauty of Monterey, California, the Monterey, California setting is as beautifully exotic as it is mysteriously alluring, the production design is terrific, the costumes are splendid, the pacing is spot on. As the miniseries goes on, the layers both of the narrative and the characters start to unravel. 

Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley are superb in this miniseries

Madeline both brings people together and draws lines in the sand. She's a fiercely loyal, well intentioned and generous person. 

Jane is very much the audience surrogate in the context of the miniseries, we instantly identify with her as a character because we, along with her, feel out of place in this high class 

Alexander Skarsgård playing Perry, Celeste's husband. outwardly, seems like the ideal husband. He's rich, successful, polite 

He clearly loves Celeste but it's in a very twisted way 

which makes the moments when he lashes out stand out significantly. 

It's never clear as to wether he genuinely wants to improve his and Celeste's marriage or if he's just trying to justify his behaviour

Adam Scott is  as Ed, Madeline's second husband proves to an invaluable source of comic relief 

Laura Dern is fabulous playing Renata Klein. Because of modern societies biases, it's easy for us to dislike a high powered, strong minded business woman but slowly over the course of the miniseries, we see that Renata is reacting to the pressures of facing a world that resents her which makes her behaviour feel completely natural.

Renata represents a lifestyle that Madeline could have had and envys