Out of step with truth?
COLIN Firth and Toni Collette star in this gripping thriller inspired by a true story.
The mini series explores the life of writer and war veteran Michael Peterson, his blended North Carolina family and the suspicious death of his wife, Kathleen.
It starts, as many murder mysteries do, at the end.
On December 9, 2001 at 2.40am, Michael makes a frantic 911 call: “My wife, she had an accident. She fell down the stairs… she’s not breathing.”
Michael’s son Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger, son of Arnie) arrives at the house to find police everywhere, his stepmother very much dead at the bottom of the stairs – blood everywhere – and his father in an absolute state. Todd had seen them earlier that evening.
“Were they arguing?” asks a cop. “No, they were drinking and laughing,” says Todd.
But the house is turned into a crime scene, then the district attorney brings murder charges, leaving members of the family forced to choose which version of events to believe.
The action flashes back to September 2001, three months before Kathleen’s death, with Michael making a toast at the dinner table: “We’re not perfect but we stick together and we love each other.” But did Kathleen really know who her husband was?
As the case becomes engulfed in a media circus, a French documentary film crew arrives to meticulously chronicle its many twists and turns.
Also starring Michael Stuhlberg, Juliette Binoche and Rosemarie Dewitt, this is a fascinating portrait of grief as well as an intriguing whodunit.