The perfect couple
Netflix
When Nicole Kidman bares her teeth in a smile, glass shatters, birds fall from the sky and dogs cower in fear. Her own eyes freeze.
Ordinary humans can’t hear the sky-high sound waves generated by their smiles, but the United States could use those ultrasonic frequencies as a weapon of doom.
We see plenty of her permanently white teeth in The Perfect Couple, the Netflix thriller that is as addictive as it is shallow. Kidman plays the character she has perfected in a series of TV dramas, from Big Little Lies to Nine Perfect Strangers to Expats: sickly rich, bitterly unhappy.
This time, it’s the bestselling novelist Greer Garrison Winbury, who married into one of America’s richest families. She’s full of insecurity. Her only moral code is snobbery: she judges everyone by their bank balance, their fame, and their family background.
When one of her sons comments that she puts too much importance on “who you went to school with or whether you’re on Malia’s wedding guest list,” she gets childishly excited for a moment.
From left, Meghann Fahy, Eve Hewson and Nicole Kidman attend the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Couple’
Kidman plays the character she has perfected in a series of TV dramas, from Big Little Lies to Nine Perfect Strangers to Expats: sickly rich, bitterly unhappy.
“Oh, so Malia Obama is getting married?” she gasps, before realizing that the reference to the former president’s daughter was sarcastic.
We learn everything we need to know about Greer when her future daughter-in-law, Amelia (Eve Hewson), shows up before breakfast wearing only her underwear and carrying a ladybug in her hands.
Greer stops giving orders to the waiters to give Amelia her most fragile smile. “Didn’t I give you a family robe to wear?” she asks with venomous sweetness. Amelia’s crime isn’t just that she walks around half naked, which is plebeian.
But she fails to appreciate the favor she’s been granted: only a select few are allowed to wear the coveted Winbury robe. Hewson, who is Bono’s real-life daughter, is tasked with being the only innocent in a nest of traitors, pill-popping cheats, greedy and arrogant cheats who have gathered for her wedding to Greer’s middle son, Benji (Billy Howle).
The scene is set on Nantucket, the New England island that was once the capital of the world’s whaling industry. The Winburys owned half of the waterfront and still have a $40 million “cottage” on the beach.
An aerial shot shows a humpback whale breaking the surface of the sea with a gigantic splash: that could be a hint at how the family made their fortune, from whale oil, or it could reflect the size of the splash Amelia’s wedding will cause.
It’s a kind of fusion of styles so lavish that it has to be done twice: with a dress rehearsal the day before the ceremony. Every second of pretentious excess is choreographed by wedding planner Roger… including a routine on the beach, in which all the guests dance in a line to Meghan Trainor’s hit Criminals. “Anything that feels this good, well, must be illegal,” he sings while punching the air.
But during the rehearsal, copious amounts of mojitos and martinis are consumed, family resentments arise, and the next morning a guest is found floating face down on the ocean shore.
Taylor Neisen and Liev Schreiber attend the Los Angeles premiere of Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Couple’ at the Egyptian Theatre
Greer’s husband, Tag (Liev Schreiber), practices his golf swing by hitting balls into the ocean, aiming for seagulls, while smoking a joint.
Based on the novel by Elin Hilderbrand, all six parts are now available to stream. They follow the genre convention that we don’t immediately find out who is dead.
After a quick introduction to all the characters, they are taken one by one to the police station to be interviewed by a detective (Donna Lynne Champlin) who is not at all impressed by their wealth.
Meghann Fahy plays Amelia’s maid of honor, Merritt Monaco, who uses the opportunity to boost her online profile as an influencer. Benji’s older brother, Thomas (Jack Reynor), loathes her.
The emphasis on privilege is sometimes overemphasized. Dakota Fanning is Thomas’s wife, one of the first to be interviewed. “They can arrest me,” she later boasts, “but they won’t. Because I’m a white woman.”
This degree of excess and selfishness makes for a series of hilariously cruel vignettes. Greer’s husband, Tag (Liev Schreiber), practices his golf swing by hitting balls into the ocean, aiming for seagulls, while smoking a joint. The family housekeeper (played by Irina Dubova) proudly reports to the police that the Winburys are so rich they have a room exclusively for wrapping presents, “but I wrap all the presents in my room.”
And Roger, the wedding planner (Tim Bagley), tells the police how incredibly wealthy his clients are: “Oh, they’re rich. ‘Private island child prostitution ring,’ rich. ‘I’m bored, let’s go buy a monkey,’ rich. ‘Kill someone and get away with it,’ rich.”
The private jets lined up like limousines at the local airfield are testament to that. If you’ve been missing your fix of billionaire backstabbing and bickering since Succession ended, pour yourself a raspberry martini and treat yourself.