‘The Staircase’ Explores Whether a Rogue Owl Killed Kathleen—or Was It Her Secretive Husband?
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Jean-Xavier de Lestrade’s 13-part The Staircase is one of the true-crime genre’s foundational texts, and a definitive examination of the case of Michael Peterson, who was accused (and eventually convicted) of killing his wife Kathleen in 2001. HBO Max’s eight-episode dramatization of Peterson’s saga (May 5), therefore, would seem to be wholly unnecessary—which is why its excellence is so surprising and satisfying.
Spearheaded by writer/director Antonio Campos (Afterschool, The Devil All the Time), this intriguing based-on-real-events miniseries walks the same ambiguous line as its predecessor, all while integrating de Lestrade’s non-fiction production into its primary action. An adaptation that both complements and enhances its source material, it’s a portrait of the unknowability of truth and the nature of justice that also serves as a commentary on the power of the media to reveal and seduce.
And yes, it does imply that an owl might have done it.
For those unfamiliar with The Staircase, that last statement will undoubtedly be perplexing. Campos, however, is well-versed in Peterson’s ordeal, and that includes the now-infamous theory that Kathleen—who was found dead at the bottom of her home’s staircase, with numerous lacerations to her head but no skull fractures or brain hemorrhaging that would indicate a blunt-force attack—could have fatally fallen after being assaulted by a barn owl. That supposition has gained traction in numerous circles over the years, and it (as well as the idea that bats in the Petersons’ attic possibly caused a similar scenario) is tantalizingly hinted at throughout the first five episodes of Campos’ series, even as the director focuses on the primary nuts and bolts of his baffling whodunit.
The Staircase concerns Michael (Colin Firth), a former Marine and current author and newspaper columnist whose previous mayoral campaign had failed due to bald-faced lies about winning a Purple Heart in Vietnam. His wife Kathleen (Toni Collette) was a successful corporate executive who relieved her work stress with wine and champagne. Together, they had a blended family comprised of Michael’s sons Clayton (Dane DeHaan) and Todd (Patrick Schwarzenegger), his adopted daughters Margaret (Sophie Turner) and Martha (Odessa Young), and Kathleen’s daughter Caitlin (Olivia DeJonge)—a regular Brady Bunch who all lived happily together in Durham, North Carolina. Their stability was forever shattered, however, when on Dec. 9, 2001, Kathleen left Michael alone at their backyard pool late at night (following a quiet evening together), and—according to Michael—he subsequently found her injured and bleeding at the bottom of their stairs, barely breathing. Two 911 calls ensued, but to no avail.
Campos’ The Staircase opens with that fateful tragedy, and then proceeds to tackle its aftermath, in which Michael becomes the immediate prime suspect of district attorney Jim Hardin (Cullen Moss) and assistant DA Freda Black (Parker Posey); his brother Bill (Tim Guinee) rallies support; and Michael hires determined David Rudolf (Michael Stuhlbarg) as his lawyer. He also grants access to his home and life to French documentarian Jean-Xavier (Vincent Vermignon), who’s looking for a case that will allow him to investigate the American criminal justice system from both sides—a mission that, as in real life, is compromised by Hardin’s reluctance to continue participating in the docuseries endeavor. There’s also the pesky issue of Michael’s innocence or guilt, which considering the inexplicable and contrary evidence at hand, is a constant unknown for everyone involved, and soon splits the Peterson clan in two, with Caitlin abandoning her father’s side in solidarity with Kathleen’s sisters Candace (Rosemarie DeWitt) and Lori (Maria Dizzia).
Michael’s story is rife with jaw-dropping bombshells, not the least of which are that he was living a clandestine bisexual life (which was vilified in court) and that, 20 years before Kathleen’s demise, he adopted Margaret and Martha after their mother—a friend of his and first wife Patty (Trini Alvarado)—died at the bottom of a staircase! Shrewdly, Campos’ series further complicates matters by touching upon the relationship that, in the wake of his conviction, blossomed between Michael and de Lestrade’s editor Sophie Brunet (Juliette Binoche). An intersection of media and violence that recalls Campos’ prior Christine, their affair raises additional provocative questions: does de Lestrade’s (and this series’) footage of Michael afford genuine understanding of the truth, or simply an alluring and untrustworthy illusion of it? And, consequently, was de Lestrade’s The Staircase an objective attempt at deciphering what happened, or a skewed-by-Sophie’s-bias effort designed to exonerate him?
As with de Lestrade’s original, The Staircase doesn’t know who or what is responsible for Kathleen’s death, and Campos navigates the ins and outs of his knotty case with dexterity, his silken camerawork infused with portent and suggestion, his seamless past-present transitions executed with grace, and his scripts rife with detail but largely devoid of exposition. His cast is uniformly excellent, led by Firth as Michael, who proves a beguiling mixture of sincerity and phoniness, arrogance and anxiety. Firth makes Michael compelling if not particularly likable; he’s selfish, cocky and deceptive enough to have killed Kathleen, and yet earnest and harried enough to have also been a victim of unfathomable circumstance. It’s a sterling performance that’s at once forthright and cagey, and it anchors the proceedings throughout its many twists and turns.
There’s a richness to The Staircase that’s partly due to Michael’s multifaceted and winding odyssey—before and after trial—and partly the result of Campos’ expert approach, which incorporates virtually every important aspect of this story, evokes dread, ambiguity and topsy-turviness via meticulous long-take tracking shots, and sharply delineates every one of its numerous principals and their hopelessly fraught dynamics. Those include, but are not limited to, the bitter resentment felt between Clayton and Todd, the confusion and fear plaguing Martha (who, like Michael, is living a secret life), the southern-fried disgust of Black, and the marital tension that beset Michael and Kathleen, here portrayed by Colette in flashbacks as both a complex woman grappling with personal and professional unease, and an enigma who met her fate for unanswerable reasons. Ultimately, she’s the ghost in this true-crime machine, and her haunting presence underscores the fact that the real protagonist of this superb and vital The Staircase isn’t any member of the Peterson family but, rather, the mystery itself.
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