Streaming on Netflix
Release date: 05.09.24
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Dakota Fanning, Eve Hewson.
Based on: The Perfect Couple by Elin Hilderbrand
Synopsis: Guests arrive on Nantucket for the Rehearsal dinner and wedding of Amelia and Benji on the Winbury family’s historic and breathtakingly beautiful sea side estate. Unfortunately, events take a sharp left and the wedding is derailed.
The Perfect Couple is a big-budget adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand’s novel and can be best-known for its portrayal of moral turpitude. Imagine all the wrong things and you’ll find them in the series. The matriarch of the Winbury family (Nicole Kidman) has invested heavily in what is set to be the event of the season until a fresh body turns up on the beach. The police get involved and everyone, including all the family members, are suspects. Shockingly however, they don’t seem to care that someone has actually died on their property.
With such a star-studded cast, I was expecting a tightly drawn family drama with murder, blood, intrigue, suspense, twists and turns, and great acting. Boy, was I wrong. There is no joy in my not loving this mini-series because I really wanted to, although I will say I didn’t hate it. I am a huge Kidman fan and I really like Eve Hewson (did you know she’s Bono’s kid? IKR!) But the series was silly, exceedingly soapy with a not-so-compelling plot. It was lavish and stylish but lavish, stylish trash TV. Don’t get me wrong, there were twists and turns but timed and delivered in such a way as to marginally hold interest just when you’re about to switch it off. The writers clearly had better things to do than create nuanced, multifaceted, or remotely relatable characters.
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Remember the twists and turns I spoke about? The characters come across as having been penned by a 12-year-old for a secondary school play and, just when the producer is begging for a twist to hold the attention of the audience for fear of completely losing them, we get tossed a bone- new information, a secret is unearthed (not skilfully) and you’re forced to sit back down because a part of you just wants to know where this is heading. It is so cringe. There are quite a few cringe moments like Nicole Kidman’s wig and the tacky but enjoyable dance routine on the beach.
There are also clichés. First one is the title- none of the couples are perfect. Not even the about-to-be newlyweds. The production has got the feel of a masked ball but distinctly lacking the elegance. The Perfect Couple is trash but it is top-tier trash. I’m not sure what it was aiming for but I would put it somewhere between an easy watch and a not so suspenseful whodunnit. You won’t try to solve the mystery before it ends but you’d still be kinda surprised who did it. The setting is beautiful. I’ll be honest- Nantucket is on my list to visit when next I’m in the States. The family is laughably unpleasant with a good dose of dysfunction ( I love a dysfunctional TV family), comically and unnecessarily snobbish, and very strangely behaves too much like new money to really be old money, and yet, in spite of your best efforts, you will want to know the who, what, where and why-dunit.
Just watch it already.
So no need to be in a hurry to watch it. But on a scale of 10 how would you rate it?