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Nicole Kidman’s recent outings in scripted television series – “Big Little Lies” and “The Undoing”, both on HBO – have made similar propositions to the viewer: explore an exclusive world through the eyes of a woman who does not. can not see it fully. Both portrayed Kidman as a privileged woman hiding an obvious truth about her life. It is a satisfactory formula.
“Nine Perfect Strangers,” Hulu’s soapy limited series on a high-end health retreat, resembles both of these shows on the surface. But it pushes and tends against expectations. Although based on a novel by Liane Moriarty and created by David E. Kelley, as “Big Little Lies” was, “Nine Perfect Strangers” is rougher and weirder, and it puts Kidman to a more complicated narrative use.
This star has always had a taste for extremes, and on “Strangers”, she lets herself go, putting a Russian accent and a new severity. As Masha, a mysterious guru, she floats through the lives of those entrusted to her, knowing that her strangers are not perfect at all, but desire to be mean enough to give her everything in return.
Masha’s retreat has rules against outside contact and against substance use – at least, substance use not administered by Masha or her deputies (played by Tiffany Boone and Manny Jacinto). There is a fire in Kidman’s eyes as she explains to her defendants the revolutionary possibilities of her treatment. Those in her charge are not deeply concerned that this will extend far beyond what they initially agreed to. The need to be good outweighs the fear of evil.
The show feels like a fight first, and not fair: The patients, who we see in spiky and surprisingly direct conversation with each other as hallucinations and mistrust set in, are all shattered. Meanwhile, Masha looks scary. She gives them a lot of the race time, so that we can see why they are asking for help. Melissa McCarthy plays a famous author who hates herself and her work; Bobby Cannavale suffers physically, that he struggles to submit, then for some, with the opioids to which he is addicted; Regina Hall plays a woman who is outwardly accommodating but cracks when she feels attacked.
The struggles of these visitors are indeed drawn. McCarthy, who has recently worked in comedy feature films with diminishing returns, does a job worthy of his gifts, spinning threads of paranoia and self-esteem. It gives an encouraging return, although the guest starring presence of Ben Falcone, her husband and the director of her less effective recent films, results in larger scenes and suggests that she is not inclined to walk away. too much of what is safest. Hall, on a roll lately, is excellent. And Cannavale finds his character’s need poignant and heartbreaking.
Not all performances get there: Although Samara Weaving tries valiantly, her character – a social media influencer with body dysmorphia – plays as an attempt to comment on current issues, not a rounded personality. And a grieving family played by Michael Shannon, Asher Keddie and Grace Van Patten is clearly in pain, but perhaps because their time together is dominated by avoiding the unspeakable rather than overflowing their guts, their struggle is missing. grain and specificity that other guests generate. In group conversations, a fiery engagement can sometimes be interrupted by a scene that ends, as if a show characterized by the franchise has gotten what it needs and is ready to move on.
This, however, indicates an unexpected strength: the set is large enough that if one is not particularly engaged by the character on the screen, it suffices to wait five minutes for the weather to change. Masha glides over everything, distant and serene on the surface. We learn, eventually, that she is grappling with her own internal chaos – not just a need for control, which is part of the deal she makes with clients, but traumas and losses in her past that can. explain his lack of sense of proportion.
We want more of Kidman: not a bigger performance, which seems impossible, but one that holds the center of the show more firmly. The risk that “Nine Perfect Strangers” took, in its first six episodes, keeps her relatively unknowable. Enigma is one thing, but Masha, the cryptic element of a story that otherwise establishes character frankly and economically, may feel like we’re being denied. It’s a surprising underuse of a performer who could show us all the things we imagine going on behind Masha’s self-confidence.
What we are able to reconstruct is the overturning at the center of “Nine Perfect Strangers”: the woman in charge of healing cannot mend herself. And while we crave more of Masha, it’s always interesting to see the characters come under his grip. “Nine Perfect Strangers” makes its story and stakes clear, and its best moments probe how well people can go. Her lack of subtlety seems, in these scenes, an asset: like Masha herself, the series wants to get out of pain by going through it.
“Nine Perfect Strangers” premieres August 18 on Hulu.
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