When the Ratliff family embark on their excursion in Thailand, we think we know who these people are and how they view things. They are white, affluent, and obsessed with making more money and remaining comfortable. How else to keep the Lorazepam train chugging along? No one leaves The White Lotus unchanged, but no one could anticipate how much Emmy-nominated Jason Isaacs’ Timothy will evolve after he cannot escape his own bad deeds. Isaacs expertly threads emotional tension with pathos on his road to enlightenment.
Timothy Ratliff seems like a man who is effortlessly in charge. Coming from a line of powerful and well-regarded men, Timothy wears his control and privilege openly–don’t let that expert North Carolina accent fool you. When he and his family arrive at The White Lotus, you can tell that he’s looking forward to a vacation even if he doesn’t fully understand why his daughter, Piper, is so passionate and determined about this excursion. But then the phone calls start coming in…
When you’re an ocean away from home, it’s not the best time to learn that your shady business dealings are leading to a money laundering takedown. Did they wait until the Ratliffs were going to be out of town to invade his company, or is it purely a coincidence? Isaacs plays Timothy’s mounting tension like he’s in a one-man production of Edgar Allan Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart. Every ring of his cell phone quickens his pulse, the screen illuminating on the dinner table to the frustrations of his family. The more he keeps his anxieties locked away in his brain, the more guilt he feels for how his family talks about status and money. It’s as if the wool is slowly being taken off of his eyes and out of his ears. As their vacation draws to its inevitable end, Timothy’s brain plagues him with ideas of violence against himself before he settles on the most drastic of measures.
Isaacs draws us in like he never has before, and he makes us wonder if we are sympathizing with a person is blinded by wealth and generational power. When he has scenes with each of his children, his face gently contorts and reacts in a way, we assume, that it hasn’t before as he hears how spoiled and reckless his children are. His marriage to Parker Posey’s Victoria, once seemingly solid, begins to crumble, and we see it all on Isaacs’ face. In certain moments, he telegraphs something akin to unexpected heartbreak.
Some of us question another person’s ability to fully change, but Timothy’s shift in perspective is mountainous because it is unexpected. Isaacs tears through this material as we see Timothy lose control second by second. One thing is for sure: the next Ratliff vacation will be very different.
The White Lotus is streaming now on Max.
