HBO’s miniseries opens with an orchestral swell and big cinematic titles. Then we’re straight in the kitchen with Kate Winslet’s Mildred baking some damn fine looking cakes and getting fobbed off by philandering husband Bert (Brian O’Byrne). Like Boardwalk Empire, we’re in depression era America, in this five-part adaptation of John M Cain’s novel. It’s not guns and molls vexing Mildred though, it’s trying to put food on the table, especially after she slings Bert out and becomes a ‘grass widow’ with two daughters to support.

 

Setting the scene, this opener gradually reveals another formidable Winslet heroine. This time she is a quietly defiant mother in Glendale, California, 1931. 
 

Indeed, you can bet she’ll be more in touch with her own sex appeal further down the line.

 

Something we’re sure to come back to is the sing-song dialogue and quotable references, which come straight out of the film noir world of the author. Characters say “speaks” for a speakeasy gin-joint and Mildred says simply “penny?” for someone’s thoughts. And round the dinner table, when she is getting sentimental with her daughters after their father leaves, older daughter Veda interjects with: “Aww, cut the mush.”

 

There is very little mush actually, as Mildred gets on with trying to earn some greenbacks. It is a shock to the system when even the Lady at the employment bureau says she ‘hasn’t got a chance’. She’s stoic though, after a nasty encounter with a Hollywood actress (Hope Davis) when she is sent over about a housekeeper position, she eventually finds something; seizing an opportunity to work as a waitress and getting slung in at the deep end.

 

Winslet gives a strong performance, with the subtlety and spirit film-watchers have come to expect. This opener is a solid hour of quality TV, showing off handsome production values, fine acting and an atmospheric score by Carter Burwell (the composer of many Coen brother films recently).
 

Looks like we are going to have to keep an eye on Mildred’s plummy accented 11 year old Veda; her upper class aspirations might clash with her mother’s can-do, get-your-hands-dirty attitude.