It's fitting that the first time Maddie Schwartz and Cleo Johnson, the two women at the center of the stylish new murder mystery "Lady in the Lake," lay eyes on each other, it's through a department-store display window—that engine of female desire. Maddie (Natalie Portman), a Baltimore housewife, quickly makes up her mind to buy the yellow dress modelled by Cleo (Moses Ingram), one of the store's living mannequins. Cleo's attention is caught by the rivulet of blood on Maddie's mustard-colored skirt suit. The year is 1966, and both will soon be on their way to political gatherings—Maddie to a fund-raiser for a Jewish civil-liberties group, Cleo to a rally for Marylands first Black woman state senator—though nothing as nebulous as social change can fulfill either woman's long-stifled aspirations. In a matter of days, Maddie will leave her husband (Brett Gelman) and her teen-age son, Seth (Noah Jupe), to pursue a career in journalism, and Cleo will dip her toe into a criminal underworld that quickly pulls her underwater. Afterward, in a voice-over, she expresses her resentment at having been made a supporting character in Maddie's second act: "Your writing dreams ruined your life. Now you want those same dreams to rewrite it. But why did you need to drag my dead body into it?"
This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
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This story is from the August 12, 2024 edition of The New Yorker.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
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