Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * * *
Cast: Kate Winslet, Julianne Nicholson, Jean Smart, Evan Peters, Angourie Rice, John Douglas Thompson, Joe Tippett, Cameron Mann, Jack Mulhern, Izzy King, Justin Hurtt-Dunkley, Sosie Bacon, David Denman, Neal Huff, James McArdle, Guy Pearce, Ruby Cruz, Enid Graham, Chinasa Ogbuagu, Kassie Mundhenk, Mackenzie Lansing, Cailee Spaeny, Robbie Tann, Cody Kostro, Patrick McDade, Katie Kreisler, Drew Scheid, Anthony Norman, Pat DeFusco, Kate Arrington, Madeline Weinstein, Kiah McKirnan, Elsa Davis, Caitlin Houlahan, Dominique Johnson.
The more a town is cut off from its neighbours, the more chance there is of a particular mindset taking root amongst its populace.
The gothic nature of these certain proclivities has been worked from almost every angle in literature and yet the trope of the taboo still finds its way to shock the respectable heart as it struggles to understand the sense of feeling it must take to destroy, to take a life, especially one that is so young.
It is however when we place the gothic against the modern day that the feeling of despair for humanity is perhaps at its highest, when we disbar the grain of the black and white pictures of our past and put them under the scrutiny of the abounding colour, then the shock factor of the crime, of what led up to the moment, and the reveal of the many dirty secrets that a small town can hope to hide, is enormous.
The Kate Winslet led American drama Mare of Easttown is one such series which is not afraid to shine a light of the small town, the place where the big city might not be that far away in terms of time but can feel like another century when you search for reasons behind murder. In the same way that Stephen King’s It pushed a microscope up against the supernatural horrors that manifest themselves in small town America, so Mare of Easttown lifts the lid on the underbelly of the boredom that can come from being a young adult or child in such a scenario, and the reasons for making your escape, whatever form that may take.
The question is always how far you will go to protect the one you love, and whilst we are all capable of letting our masks slim, of being part of a crime, or turning a blind eye to the actions of others that make us uncomfortable, we still don’t wish to see someone we love with all our heart punished. In this aspect the nature of gothic that hangs over the appearance of the colonial town is highlighted by the reactions of its people, the drug addition, the sex, the drinking culture, all tell-tale signs of the desperately bored and unhappy, the sense of decay that infiltrates every home, the insistence that that the people are more reclusive than those in a larger and dynamic city, all play their part in revealing that on occasion, secrets don’t wish to be acknowledged, let alone put out for public consumption.
Kate Winslet, in the lead role of Mare Sheehan, once more excels in her role, utterly believable, as any actor worth their salt should be, but as with every performance, one that grounded in honesty, dedicated, immaculate, and with terrific support from the likes of Julianne Nicholson as Mare’s best friend Lori Ross, Evan Peters as Detective Colin Zabel, who added a grandness of optimism in the face of the decay, and Jean Smart as Mare’s mother Helen Fahey.
It is the decaying nature of the small-town America, that Mare of Easttown reveals itself, the very image of what others would see in its country appeal being eroded by the sense of helplessness and being forgotten, especially by the young, that sees its youth either falling, or leaving for a brighter future in some far of perceived utopia.
Utterly compelling, a warning perhaps that what we might look for in later life is not the same as it is younger minds; and in the end how far do we go to protect the ones we love, especially if we are fallible as them.
Ian D. Hall