She also signed on as executive producer and – as always – gave her best. Which amounts to amagnetic interpretationwith such a strong character that to incorporate almost everything else of The Veil (available on Disney+ with all six episodes) making it disappear as if swallowed by a huge black hole.
The feeling that the miniseries leaves Steven Knightthe creator of Peaky Blinders, is exactly this: a vortex at the center of which is an actress who is so superior to everything else that confuses the final result.
The Veil Plot
Known simply as “the Englishwoman,” the woman who calls herself Imogen (Elizabeth Moss) is sent to a UNHCR refugee camp in Syria to pick up what has been identified as one of the very few female commanders of ISIS. The other refugees want to kill her, taking revenge: Alyssa (Yumna Marwan, Hell’s Gate) is in danger, and Imogen seems determined to protect her from everything and everyone, including her own employers. On a journey from Syria to France and England, the two women compare Western and Middle Eastern culture, colonialism and untold massacres, exploitation and redemption. While the mystery on the lives of both becomes ever deeper.
Imogen is the center of a narrative universe that she makes disappear
Take Carrie Mathisonwith the award-winning performance of an exceptional Claire Danes, in Homeland. Think of her and try to imagine a character, a woman, also blonde, also Western, who can equal her. In intelligence, ability, emotion. You will find Imogen, and everything else next to her will be blurry.
Created, written, directed and produced – all that was missing was for him to play and sing the soundtrack – by Steven Knight, The Veil is an American series that he wants to sound English. Or wants to pretend to do so. A production that puts intelligence systems comparison of several countries, criticizing – apparently – the American methods and in the management of delicate international crises, especially when the international terrorism.
The Veil drops that veil, precisely, that hides the realitymuch more complex than what the media tells us, in the intricate political-economic game of terrorism. But also the hypocrisy of American products that here, masterfully represented by Max (Josh Charles, The Good Wife), are those who paint themselves as heroes but when faced with a Modigliani they only see “a woman with a strange head”.
That’s not all, of course. Because Caesar wants what is his, so “Americans know more because they have more money and better equipment”.
Ed Elizabeth Mossthat of The West Wing, of Mad Men, and of course that masterpiece which is her best known title, Handmaid’s Tale, does not accept to act in just any series.
This alone should be enough to get you started on The Veil, and if you’ve been discouraged by some careless negative reviews, just know that those who complain do so because they don’t understand the prospectand is watching everything that revolves around Imogen. Wrong. Because if you let yourself be carried away by her, letting yourself guide from her – and only from her – gaze, you will live a memorable experience. And everything that is not up to her level will fade into the background. You will forget it immediately after the conclusion, remembering – as is right – only her.
The Veil is full of enigmatic characters, but only the ambiguous smiles of Imogen, those yes, are the salt of this miniseries.
Il rhythm grows episode after episode, from the snow-capped mountains to Istanbul, Paris and Londonwhile Elizabeth Moss confirms herself as one of the best actresses around with that gaze so blue that it is almost transparent in her first shot of a baroque finale specifically designed to exaggerate, to show abilities and limitations, to underline how money and power, in the end, make the difference only in that “deep state” (il deep state) which is always one step ahead of the reality that we ordinary moral people live and see.
And speaking of “deep” or “hidden” content: although I followed every episode carefully, I didn’t really understand the meaning of the ban on under 18 years of age which dominates the official American classification of the series (and is therefore reported on the Disney+ website).
Yes, there is a certain degree of violence. There are no scenes of nudity or sex. I would think that the problem is the very delicate theme of terrorism, but if that were the case then all the other numerous series on the subject should have the same classification. This is not the case.
