The Undoing Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

The Undoing Blu-ray Movie Review

Just undo it.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman March 14, 2021

Big Little Lies seemed to give a pretty substantial career boost to several people involved with the production, including David E. Kelley and Nicole Kidman, and if Big Little Lies: The Complete Second Season took the bloom off of the rose if arguably only a little, Kelley and Kidman are back with what one assumes they at least perceive as being with a vengeance with The Undoing, as if to collectively say, “See? It wasn’t a fluke!” The Undoing is on one hand surprisingly predictable, but it's also a nicely labyrinthine deconstruction of one of those apparently “perfect” marriages, much, in fact, like at least some of the relationships in Big Little Lies. Psychologist Grace Fraser and husband and pediatric oncologist Jonathan Fraser (Hugh Grant) would seem to be one of those “it” couples who have everything, including a loving son named Henry (Noah Jupe). In at least something like the way that Big Little Lies kind of simultaneously peeled back the layers and ripped the scab off of various interrelationships, The Undoing documents the unraveling of “happily ever after” in the wake of the murder of a friend of the Frasers, who it turns out has more than a passing acquaintance with one of them. The miniseries is deliberately plotted, with an episodic structure obviously designed to keep viewers on the edge of their seats, as a number of revelations skews perceptions as to what exactly is going on and who might be responsible for the focal death.

Note: While I've taken caution not to post any outright spoilers in the following comments, there are some plot elements which aren't divulged instantly that are largely unavoidable in any thorough discussion of The Undoing, so for those prone to reading between the lines, forewarned is forearmed.

Things start on a hectic but basically organized level for the Frasers as the miniseries opens. There are plans being made for an event at Henry's tony private school, Reardon, including a fundraising auction that Grace is helping to spearhead. When she shows up to what amounts to a very upscale kaffee klatsch with other Reardon mothers, including friend Sylvia Steinetz (Lily Rabe), Grace is informed that a less well heeled mother whose son attends Reardon on a scholarship is also at the meeting. There's therefore an instantaneous feeling of class consciousness when Elena Alves (Matilda De Angelis), the "scholarship mother" in question, introduces herself, an awkwardness made even more uncomfortable when Elena almost provocatively unbuttons her blouse and begins nursing her newborn daughter right at the table where the women are discussing various upper 1% prizes to be auctioned off for their kids' school.

Grace and Elena have a couple of other rather strange interactions. A completely naked Elena walks up to Grace in a workout locker room and engages her in conversation, and, later, at the Reardon auction, an obviously distraught Elena is comforted by Grace in an elevator, comfort which results in Elena planting a full lips kiss on Grace. Jonathan in the meantime has an oncology conference to attend out of town, and when Sylvia calls Grace to inform her Elena's body has been found (by her young son, sadly), Grace is eager to reach out to Jonathan to tell him, but he has strangely left his cell phone at their house, and none of the hotels where Grace thinks he may be seem to have him on their guest list. Already cracks of paranoia and off kilter relationships are starting to suffuse the story, and Grace's seemingly addled state of mind is documented by some obviously tricky cutaways to brief displays of Elena's badly battered corpse. Is Grace a "secret" killer for some reason?

Things rather quickly begin falling apart for Grace once the police, including a detective named Joe Mendoza (Édgar Ramírez), show up to question her and, even worse, seem to have an interest in questioning Jonathan. In short order, it turns out that Jonathan has been keeping quite a few secrets from Grace, including the state of his employment and in fact the state of his relationship with Grace and, not so coincidentally, Elena. Jonathan's disappearance is kinda sorta explained, but Grace, now feeling like she's fighting several battles simultaneously, isn't having Jonathan's mea culpas, and Jonathan soon finds himself arrested for Elena's murder. Still, The Undoing plays its cards rather closely to its veritable vest, with an underlying sense that maybe not every secret has yet been revealed.

If the actual "truth" as to what's going on turns out to be basically on the tawdry side, The Undoing is nonetheless a rather incisive look at a woman who makes her living telling other people how to handle their "issues", who finds herself spectacularly ill equipped (at least for a while, anyway) to achieve the same in her own life. Kidman is perhaps just a bit too self conscious in her role at times (the many shots of her walking around various Manhattan locations sometimes seem to reveal her preening for the camera), but she delivers a nicely modulated performance as Grace slowly begins to realize how deceived she's been. The windup to the miniseries probably strains credulity to the breaking point, and Grace's arrival as a virtual Deus ex machina may actually strike some as downright comical, but The Undoing manages to create suspense and unease in about equal measure, with a brisk storytelling style and some excellent performances in the large supporting cast.

The Undoing Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Undoing is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of HBO and Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.00:1. The IMDb lists Arri Alexas as having been utilized, with a 4K DI. This is a typically very well detailed looking presentation, even if it doesn't have the awe inspiring vistas of the oceanside setting of Big Little Lies. Fine detail is generally excellent throughout, though there are several stylistic quirks that offer skewed perspectives and even out of focus elements within the frame, as can be made out in some of the screenshots (screenshots 8, 18 and 19 serve as some suitable examples in this regard). The palette tends to be either autumnal or wintry, with both cool blues and whites interspersed with a number of warmer ambers and auburns (notably Kidman's lustrous curls). There are a few variances in clarity, not all of which look to be related to stylistic choices, but on the whole this is a sharp, appealing looking transfer that doesn't offer any major compression issues.

The Undoing Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Undoing features a nicely rendered DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that regularly opens up the soundstage in both outdoor urban environments, but also some of the sequences involving crowds, as in an early party scene for Reardon parents, or, later, the gaggle of press surrounding the Frasers after Jonathan's arrest, as well as some of the background clamor in the courtroom itself. There are a few source cue choices that some folks may quibble with (was it really necessary to underscore Grace's walks through Manhattan with Vivaldi, as if to suggest not all that subliminally that it's music for rich people?), but the score sounds nicely full bodied and spacious. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout the presentation. Optional subtitles in a variety of languages are available.

The Undoing Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• The Undoing Revelations offers a number of brief EPKs whose focus is disclosed by their titles:

  The Fraser Family (1080p; 2:02)

  
  

  Elena Alves (1080p; 1:52)

  
  

  Jonathan Fraser (1080p; 2:41)

  
  

  Sylvia Steinetz (1080p; 1:29)

  
  

  Detective Joe Mendoza (1080p; 2:00)

  
  

  Grace Reinhart Fraser (1080p; 2:06)

  
  

  Haley Fitzgerald (1080p; 1:53)

Disc Two

• Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant Introduce The Undoing (1080p; 4:04)


• Creating The Undoing (1080p; 3:11) offers more of various cast and crew, including Kidman and Grant.


• The Undoing Revelations continues with mini-EPKs on the following subjects:

  Fernando Alves (1080p; 2:01)

  
  

  Franklin Reinhart (1080p; 2:28)

  
  

  Henry Fraser (1080p; 2:19)

  
  

  The Bridge Scene (1080p; 2:35)

The Undoing Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The basic underlying story of The Undoing is ultimately actually kind of rote, and the mini-series perhaps becomes too ridiculous in its closing moments, but Kidman and Grant are often intriguingly ambiguous in the tale, and a number of efforts at misdirection in the presentational aspects may keep people guessing even when they really shouldn't be, considering what plays out. A large supporting cast, including a taciturn characterization by Donald Sutherland as Grace's well heeled father, also give this piece some additional color. Technical merits are solid, and The Undoing comes Recommended.