Reel Rundown: Netflix adaptation of ‘The Perfect Couple’ strains to live up to typical beach read
“If you look for perfection,” the novelist Leo Tolstoy once wrote, “you’ll never be content.”
If Tolstoy were alive and writing today, this quote might have been his warning about the Netflix miniseries “The Perfect Couple.” Far from being perfect, this project strains to live up to the simple standards of a typical beach read.
Which actually is understandable since, as created by Jenna Lamia, it was adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s novel of the same title involving a rich family that owns a summer home on the Massachusetts island of Nantucket.
Nicole Kidman stars as Greer Garrison Winbury, a super successful novelist, who along with her husband, Tag (Liev Schreiber), make up the so-called “perfect couple.” The ongoing, and enduring, question is – are they, really?
The duo and their three sons are gathered at Greer and Tag’s exclusive estate with – of course – a superb ocean view to celebrate the forthcoming marriage of the middle son, Benji (Billy Howle), to Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson). Joining them are the other sons, the eldest Thomas (Jack Reynor) and youngest Will (Sam Nivola), along with Thomas’ wife, Abby (Dakota Fanning).
It doesn’t take long for the obligatory daytime-drama to begin and the family secrets to be laid bare. Greer doesn’t think Amelia is good enough for her precious middle son, and she may be right because Amelia isn’t sure that she’s sexually attracted to Benji.
She admits as much to her best friend and maid-of-honor Merritt (Meghann Fahy), who advises Amelia that she’s just feeling pre-wedding jitters. But before Amelia can even think what her BFF might be trying to say, Merritt is found dead.
Uh-oh, is it an accident? Suicide? Murder? That’s up to the Nantucket police Chief Dan Carter (Michael Beach) and state police detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) to figure out. The family, meanwhile, begins to show the strains of its long history of secrets and lies.
Amelia finds herself attracted to Benji’s best man, Shooter Dival (Ishaan Khatter). Thomas is having an affair with an old squeeze of Tag’s, Isabel Nallet (a virtually unrecognizable Isabelle Adjani). Will is sneaking around with Chloe (Mia Isaac), the police chief’s daughter.
And Greer is caught between preparing the upcoming wedding and holding a public reading of her 28th novel, while Tag is either smoking a joint, hitting golf balls at the sea birds or lusting after any number of women – including Merritt.
So many red herrings, and just as many suspects for Merritt’s death – including both Amelia’s parents, especially her cancer-stricken, pill-popping mom (Dendrie Taylor) and the put-upon housemaid Gosia (Irina Dubova).
Motives? How about jealousy, lust, sibling rivalry, suspected Mafia connections, money problems – and the lingering question about when the sons are going to gain access to their must-needed trust funds?
And let’s not even get into the dialogue, at least some of which had to have been taken from straight Hilderbrand’s source novel. Sample? This from Thomas: “There’s a fine line between protecting the ones you love and suffocating them.”
The main problem is tone. Is this drama? Comedy? Parody? None of the three or all at once? Whatever the intent, the emotional level is abysmally uneven. And who do we blame? Hilderbrand? The director of all six episodes Susanne Bier? The creator and showrunner Lamia? The gaggle of writers, Lamia among them?
How a first-rate director such as Bier (“In a Better World”) got involved in this project is hard to figure out. Just as cryptic is the question of what attracted such stars as the Oscar-winning Kidman and talented Schreiber.
The answers, though, are likely as simple as the motivations of the characters in “The Perfect Couple” itself. For that, let’s refer to another film title:
“It’s All About the Benjamins.”