Sarah Snook shines in Melbourne-shot domestic thriller

Privilege and disadvantage, care and exploitation, power and corruption, us and them, foreigners and locals, working women and stay-at-home mothers, husbands and wives and the way they share (or don’t) the domestic load: these pairings and oppositions and conflicts all inform the plot, in ways big and small, subtle and less so. And together they elevate All Her Fault well beyond the norm.

Michael Pena brings dignity, resolve and compassion to a nicely drawn role as the police detective leading the investigation while facing his own challenges as a parent of a disabled child. Dakota Fanning is good, too, as a fellow parent struggling with her own work-life-marriage balancing act, who nonetheless forges a friendship with Marissa when others prefer to blame her for what has happened.

But it’s Sarah Snook who anchors everything, and she’s marvellous. She’s in tears almost from beginning to end, but never a victim. She’s terrified, baffled, furious, resolved, and always utterly believable.

This is Snook’s show, as star and as executive producer, and as de facto host to the international cast in her adopted hometown. And she absolutely nails it.