“Disclaimer,” the new miniseries from Apple TV+, has no shortage of enticements. They start with a cast led by Cate Blanchett, Kevin Kline, Sacha Baron Cohen, Lesley Manville and Kodi Smit-McPhee. That’s three Oscar wins for acting (two Blanchetts, one Kline) and nine additional nominations. But who’s counting?

It’s based on a proudly pulpy, joyful bestseller: Renée Knight’s 2015 novel of the same name. And it splits the stories between a surprisingly picturesque London (oh, those World of Interiors-worthy digs from the characters of husband and wife team Blanchett and Cohen, Catherine and Robert Ravenscroft) and a sun-drenched Italy that is even more beautiful. Bellissimo? Si, molto, molto bellissimo. And speaking of scenic: one of the two cinematographers is the phenomenal Emmanuel Lubezki (three Oscars, but again, who’s counting?).

Best of all, Alfonso Cuarón directed and wrote the adaptation. Cuarón’s credits include “Y tu mamá también” (2001), “Children of Men” (2006) and “Gravity” (2013). However, he has not directed anything since “Roma” (2018). So add anticipation to seduction – and yes, four Oscars.

“Disclaimer” has seven episodes. The first two are available today, with one each coming on subsequent Fridays through November 8. Based on those first two episodes, seduction may have to be put on hold.

It starts with a young couple on holiday in Italy. There is also a woman on holiday with her son. Twenty years later, viewers will learn that woman is an award-winning documentary filmmaker (Blanchett) married to the head of a human rights organization (Cohen). The young man in the couple is the son of a teacher (Kline) and his wife (Manville).

There’s a lot of – no, make that a lot of – of switching back and forth between Italy then and London now. In London there is some additional switching back and forth in time and almost constant switching back and forth between the main characters. Cuarón tries to sort things out and employs a voice-over narrator. Unfortunately, that narrator (Indira Varma) sounds a lot like Blanchett’s smokily authoritative contralto. So for at least the first episode, if not longer, viewers will likely assume it’s her character we’re hearing about. What further encourages this assumption is that Kline’s character gets his own voiceover. Instead of solving the increasing convolution, the convolution just gets bigger.

Cuarón’s filmmaking is extremely confident – ​​no surprise there – with plenty of tracking shots and handheld camerawork. But a little cleverness turns into a visual tic. To indicate shifts from Italy to London later, he uses an iris shot, a device commonly used in the Silent Era, where a scene ends with a contracting circle.

Kline, usually such a wonderfully dynamic actor, is miscast as a teacher, and his hairy English accent is the least of it. Cohen is hardly recognizable as a neat husband, which is meant as a compliment. As for Blanchett, she doesn’t really get into full Blanchett mode until the final episode. When she does, let’s just say she has an extended monologue that any actor would kill for, and she lives up to it.

For a filmmaker, twist-heavy plots present two obvious challenges: clarity and plausibility. Cuarón handles the first quite well, the second not so well. That may be due to another, less obvious challenge. The characters in such plots are often side issues. A lot of unpleasant things happen in ‘Disclaimer’. That’s okay, because unpleasant things do wonders for the storytelling speed. The problem is that the unkind things are done by or done to such consistently unkind people. Worrying about what happens next and why is puzzling. Caring for the people involved is more. ‘Disclaimer’ is unfortunately a little less, but who’s counting?

Mark Feeney can be reached at [email protected].