Early this year Disney+/Hulu released the series ‘The Clearing’, which adapts the novel ‘In the Clearing’ by J.P. Pomare that itself is based on the real life Australian cult known as ‘The Family’. In the series, we’re first introduced to the family through the children who learned have been largely “adopted”, albeit through sketchy means, by the family which is led by the matriarch Adrienne Beaufort who is known simply as Mother to the children. Nearly all of the children are made to have the same bleached blonde hair, and they wear matching attire as well. One day a young girl in The Family known as Anna meets a young girl on the side of the road named Sara, in a ploy to distract her as The Family then kidnaps her to bring her into their cult. Sara is given a new name, and with some struggle taught their ways, but she resists all the while with Anna seemingly conflicted about her want to help this girl and her devotion to, and/or fear, of The Family. Some years later Anna, portrayed now by Teresa Palmer, is shown in the present day where she is known as Freya. Though Freya appears to be free of The Family, it is clear that the lingering trauma, and the ex-members lingering presence in her community, threatens her and her child Billy. Increasingly these conflicts come to a head, as past becomes present.
Traditionally I do not seek out true crime stories; however, seeing that this one simply used the truth as a launching pad actually made me more amenable to its telling as opposed to so many others that all too often erase victims. Though this story perhaps does put too much of an emphasis on Adrienne Beaufort, the leader of the cult, I appreciate how at its center we are shown Anna/Freya as our primary point of view character. Freya is by no means perfect, and at times has elements of an unreliable narrator; however, even this only serves to show the trauma and its ripples that came from her time in The Family.
Miranda Otto as Adrienne Beaufort in The Clearing (Source: Hulu)
Teresa Palmer, who I appreciated but was not wowed by in Warm Bodies, really showed her chops here. As the lead role, and the most tortured character, she really had to play an incredible range of wrenching emotions and in my view she made it all feel so real. Palmer is supported by an overall excellent cast, including the child actors, as they all really gave their best with these roles. Guy Pearce may be the most famous name in the cast, followed close behind by Miranda Otto, but in this role Pearce knows he’s not the primary focus, nor even secondary. Instead his role is impactful when needed, but more often it is perfectly subtle as well when called for. Otto on the other hand needs to be at times bold in her role as cult leader, and she delivers a tour de force in the role, which yet again reminded me why when I see Otto’s name on a cast list I find already anticipating some incredible acting. One unfamiliar actor who stuck apart for me was Hazem Shammas, who plays the detective on the case Yusuf Joe Saad. I was unfamiliar with his work, yet I’ll now be seeking out more of his roles as I thought he deftly played with all of Saad’s nuances.
I mentioned earlier there being perhaps too much focus on Otto’s character Adrienne, and while I still feel that perhaps true it came in an episode where the writers felt rather rightly the need to show how the cult began. I think it’s understandable when looking from the outside in, especially with an adaptation of a true story as this somewhat is, that we really have to understand why these characters would sign their lives, their money, and even their children, over to someone like Adrienne. Though it’s perplexing on a personal level, we can at least see how each of the followers, for their own reasons, came to find something in The Family they felt was lacking in their lives otherwise. Of course we also see how this all escalates into the heinous crimes and abuses to come, but the writers did an excellent job setting this up.
In fact to go further, I thought one highlight was the structure, which blended times together to portray not only the characters through the years but more importantly the scars of the cult. Yes at first this could be somewhat confusing, as I believe there was perhaps only one reference to a date ever, there are plenty of clues with aging and textual evidence to root us in the time we’re watching. Perhaps too even this confusion serves a purpose, as it helps us feel a little off kilter in the same way these characters do as well.
Ultimately The Clearing was a compelling watch, and one I’d recommend to fans of mysteries, and to those following and loving the recent spate of true crime, cult thrillers. Though true crime stories are often dramatized when presented, its rare that they’re adapted with so many fictional elements, so this may perhaps stand apart in that way. Indeed though the legacy of the real life Family is quite horrid, it’s strange that so much of this show, when compared to the real events, doesn’t match. So as you should probably always do take the show with a grain of salt if you’re looking for explicit truth. Still this show does an incredible job at showing what surely it might be like to go through such trauma, as Anna and the others do, and to live with it for a lifetime.
