Jun 12

Jun 12 Patrick Melrose

Oh.

Boy.

If you can stomach it, Patrick Melrose, Showtime's brilliant limited series starring Benedict Cumberbatch in the titular role, is as powerful as it is punitive. The beautifully patina-ed view of the darkest and most damaging 'parenting', exposes the lasting, slow poisoning that is the legacy of abuse. Benedict Cumberbatch gives a breath-taking, career-defining performance, but Jennifer Jason Leigh — back to screens large and small thanks to Quentin Tarantino and her turn on The Hateful Eight (2015), may be the real stand-out here as his sedated, complicit mother.

I couldn't help but think of another recent film, also a tale of furtive, secretive fumblings in the dark and also set in a crumbling estate in the the south of France — Call Me By Your Name (Guadagnino 2017). There the similarities end, or... do they? Patrick Melrose is harrowing and hard to watch, and while not a love story, ultimately self-love is Patrick's only chance of redemption.

Though the abuse suffered by Patrick (and it should be made clear, this story is the semi-autobiographical account of author Edward St. Aubyn) is extreme, the decline and death of a parent can bring up the same such conflicted feelings, the eternal dance of loathing and loving. For all of us who grew up with the spectre of neglect and abuse — Patrick Melrose is validation that we have the power to within us to rise above, if not forgive.