Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
Cast: Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Michael Stuhlbarg, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sophie Turner, Dane DeHaan, Vincent Vermignon, Juliette Binoche, Tim Guinee, Parker Posey, Justice Leak, Olivia DeJonge, Rosemarie DeWitt, Robert Clayton, Cory Scott Allen, Hannah Pniewski, Myke Holmes, Kevin Sizemore, Ryan Lewis, Maria Dizzia, Susan Pourfar, Frank Feys, Trini Alvarado, Andre Martin, Cullen Moss, Daniela Lee.
Murder divides opinion, of that there is no doubt, especially when the deceit of ambiguity takes its place on the stage and forensic science can be seen to have faltered, questioned, shown to be in the hands of those whose very judgement can be found wanting as their own agenda dirties the water of the truth beyond recognition.
Nobody wants to see a murderer get away with their crimes, but we also surely do not wish to see an innocent person locked away for life on the testimony of opinion, of ambiguity, of reasonable uncertainty. Yet opinion is what drives debate, what forces laws to be challenged, what can overturn a miscarriage of justice, what can force the law to demand the once supposed guilty face a retrial and prove without a shred of vagueness that they are the culprit, the killer amid freedom.
There have been many such cases that have caught the public’s attention over the last few decades, but few perhaps have had the circumstances filmed across a documentary, in a foreign language film, and now in a multi part series for television as the trial of Michael Peterson is once more placed before the national discussion in the objective The Staircase.
If you want to debate the outcome, that is your right, but the trial and consequent verdicts, of appeals, accusations, hearsay and demands, plays second fiddle in the eight-part drama starring Colin Firth, Toni Collette, Sophie Turner, and Dane DeHaan, to the pursuit of opinion.
Motives and mistakes, the staple of a court room drama, that is the driving force of the original trial, whether the random occurrences that led up to the death of Kathleen Peterson, the idea that someone can be attacked by an owl outside their home, and then as they are fighting back pain, overbalance and fall down the stairs and die because of their horrific actions, is one that to the many can be seen as farfetched, a sense of the fantastic, a tale weaved by a story teller and not one that has any standing in a real investigation; the court of opinion is one of guilt, murder, the nefarious crime surrounded by denials and facts, or it is of accident, of chance…and in their opinion is swayed, because whether Michael Peterson is guilty or not, nobody likes a verdict that cannot be explained absolutely.
Colin Firth has been a firm favourite of audiences seemingly forever, and as Michael Peterson it is easy to understand why, the sense of charm and grace that is visible at every turn, hides the complexity of his craft, one that in the moment can turn with just the flicker of the eyes, a masterful sense of occasion captured in facial expressions, and one administered with devastating results.
The Staircase has one deciding factor in its favour above all others, that its ambiguity is reminiscent to another case of murder that was allowed to dominate conversation, that of Claus Von Bulow and the apparent death of his wife Sunny. It is to this earlier murder trial that ambiguity favours uncertainty, and one which The Staircase follows suit.
With passionate portrayals of the Peterson Family by Toni Collette, Dane DeHaan, Sophie Turner, and Odessa Young, and with a graceful performance by Michael Stuhlbarg as Lawyer David Rudolf and Juliette Binoche as Sophie Broussard, the serial is mesmerising, complex, opaque, but one that will not fall into obscurity.
Real life murder should not be entertainment, but observation, and for this the serial comes out on top, it frames the point of doggedly going after the absolute truth but knowing, understanding, that it might never come to light. A superb drama that lacks for nothing except the clarity of the verdict.
Ian D. Hall