The Perfect Couple

^{Review by AJ}

This summer, Nicole Kidman heads to Nantucket with Netflix to create yet another “rich people caught in a murder investigation” drama. Sounds so Big Little Lies to you? That’s because it is – but the wonderful Oscar winner proves that if the formula ain’t broken, don’t fix it. The Perfect Couple became one of the buzziest dramas of the season, an addictive guilty pleasure that you just keep binging despite its flaws.

Adapted from Elin Hilderbrand’s novel of the same name, the miniseries centres around a wedding weekend in Nantucket that gets disrupted when one of the guests turns up dead. At the centre of the mystery is the affluent Winbury Family, whose son Benji (Billy Howle) is about to marry Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson). From the start, Amelia’s working-class background is creating tension with Benji’s haughty mother, famed novelist Greer Winbury (Kidman). When Amelia’s maid of honour Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy) is found dead the night before the wedding, a rattled Amelia begins discovering that the Winbury’s might not be the perfect upper-class family they paint themselves to be.

Like a good beach read, the 6-episode miniseries is tailor made to give us something salacious to decipher while feasting on the gorgeous cast and lavish display of wealth. It is not the most groundbreaking murder mystery, with a lot of elements borrowed from recent shows featuring rich people behaving badly like The White Lotus and the aforementioned Big Little Lies: the exotic locale, the beachfront mansion, the WASP characters, the presence of Fahy and Kidman… And of course, there’s the framing device of characters being interrogated to reveal the different perspectives to the same events – something very integral to BLL. However, the rather banal murder mystery is lifted by the acting heavyweight in the cast.

Kidman, of course, is luminous in her role as the Winbury’s elegant matriarch. With her silk blouses and perfectly coiled hair, Greer runs her household like the military, constantly making sure everything is pristine to the outside world even when it’s falling apart inside. Kidman’s no stranger to this type of role and she carries Greer with the same gravitas we’ve come to expect. Kidman deftly balances Greer’s domineering personality with her soft spot for her family. She’s got moments of vulnerability, but very much tries to repress it in order to keep things in order. 

Dakota Fanning steals every scene she’s in as Greer’s snarky daughter-in-law Abby. The character is without a doubt the most fun to watch, not least because she continues to prod everyone around her while heavily pregnant. Fanning injects the character with a smugness that is both snobbish and gleefully entertaining. She often just hovers in the background, caressing her baby bump like a Bond villain caressing his cat as drama unfolds around her. 

Liev Schreiber is suitably slimy as Greer’s philandering husband Tag. His character is meant to be the charming silver fox who enchants every young woman who comes into the family’s orbit and Schreiber delivers. 

The big A-list names greatly prop up the other cast, who are adequate in their roles if not that memorable. Hewson, the daughter of U2 frontman Bono, does quite well as Amelia, the ordinary girl who’s clashing with the Winbury’s way of life. However, there are times when she’s overshadowed by her co-stars, which is either a case of performance or weak writing. 

But all of that can be forgiven with the series’ transportive Nantucket setting. The entire show is a great depiction of a laid back, old money vacation. The lavish mansion, the boats, the pristine beach, the fancy designer clothes, the posh Nancy Meyers-esque interior – the show spares no expense in the production department. 

Ultimately, using the beach read analogy from earlier, it knows what it wants to be – an opulent murder mystery – and has enough of the offering to please.