THE UNDOING (2020) – Sex, lies and murder

Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant headline the cast of this six episodes American series. However for me, the main attraction of this psychological murder mystery thriller is its director Susanne Bier. Ms Bier is a Danish director who first caught my attention with the excellent British espionage thriller The Night Manager in 2016. She then went on to make Bird Box for Netflix 2018 which admittedly did not make as much of an impact.

Susanne Bier has a style of story telling that makes her story’s characters appear larger than life. It is a bit of a old fashion style but one that works well for a mini series narrative to keep the interest flowing. The Undoing is a far less ambitious and complex project than The Night Manager and there are less opportunities to go beyond the mundane and straight forward style of narration. It succeeds in keeping the audience attention focus and we are kept guessing what actually happened in the central crime incident. What does get a bit annoying is what felt like an endless flow of half truths, lies and revelations in every episode to throw the audience off. This began feeling like a repeated plot device.

In a series of this nature, much of the success of the show would depend on the performances and script. The Undoing has a great cast and it was good to see Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant in something decent that requires them to act for a change. They play a typical successful couple living in New York where their lives get upheaved by the husband’s infidelity and a link to a violent murder. Donald Sutherland also has a decent supporting role as Nicole’s supportive father. British child actor Noah Jupe who plays the son, also had some quieter stand out moments.

All in all The Undoing provides some entertaining hours for you to binge watch. It isn’t as good as Susanne Bier’s The Nigh Manager, but this will have to do for now.