The malignancy of loss, trauma, and blame are the roots that cause a group of people to join a retreat in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers. Adapted from Liane Moriarty’s book of the same name, it stars Nicole Kidman as Masha, the founder of the wellness resort called Tranquillum House. This is not Kidman and Moriarty’s first collaboration, as Kidman previously starred in HBO’s Big Little Liars. The miniseries is packed with stars, but the downside is that it focuses more on the stars than the storytelling. There are just a few interesting narratives, while the rest are left underdeveloped and underused. Ultimately, Nine Perfect Strangers falls into flat storylines that do not know what to do with a wide net of talent on the show.
Nine strangers are picked to attend a retreat for 10 days at the Tranquillum House with the purpose to transform and heal their trauma. Each of the participants is carefully selected by Masha and her team: Yao (Manny Jacinto), Delilah (Tiffany Boone), and Glory (Zoe Terakes). The group consists of a drug addict, Tony (Bobby Cannavale); a novelist, Frances (Melissa McCarthy); and a family grieving the loss of their son. The other guests include the wealthy couple Ben and Jessica Chandler (Melvin Gregg and Samara Weaving), who come to the retreat to fix their marriage. A single mother, Carmel (Regina Hall), visits the wellness centre to find some clarity after her husband leaves her for a younger woman. The final guest is Lars (Luke Evans), a journalist who joins the retreat with a hidden agenda.
The one aspect that Nine Perfect Strangers captures perfectly is how the show deals with the themes of trauma, loss, addiction, and suicide. The participants are given the chance to invigorate their minds and bodies, to cleanse their trauma out and figure out the root of their problems. The most overwhelming and moving story is that of the Marconi family, who deal with the suicide of their son. Napoleon and Heather’s (Michael Shannon and Asher Keddie) marriage is on the rocks, and their daughter Zoe (Grace Van Patten) is depressed and lost, riddled with guilt because she and her brother Zach (Hal Cumpston) were not on good terms when he committed suicide. In a scene where the participants are at dinner, Napoleon makes a speech about his last night with his son and not getting up to check on his son when his alarm rings, confessing that if he had gotten up to check on Zach like he did every other morning, he would have been able to save him that day.
The main problem is that Nine Perfect Strangers has way too many characters and the show becomes a perfect disaster, with a muddled ending and a chaotic finale that just does not seem to tie in with the rest of the series. Some of the characters’ motives and development are underused and are not given the space to grow, such as Ben Chandler, who seems to have a less developed character compared to Frances, Tony, and the Marconis. In the end, Ben seems a bit lost and quite unsure of who he is and what he should do. There is not enough time for the series to flesh out the characters, as it jumps from one storyline to another without giving a single storyline a chance to fully breathe. There is no correlation between the narratives and the occasionally creative and ominous shots that suggest that this show has something promising to offer viewers. All of these elements are mixed together to craft a dull series that suffers from too many questions from the very beginning.
Regardless of these problems, Shannon, McCarthy, and Cannavale give exceptional performances throughout the show. Shannon gives the most top-notch performance, given the tedious narratives. Napoleon Marconi is a nuanced and complex role, as he goes through the journey of forgiving himself for the guilt he’s been carrying since his son died. Shannon is always a scene-stealer in any project that he is in, and with Nine Perfect Strangers, he gives a wonderful performance throughout. On the other hand, Kidman does not have the same power that she has had in her previous projects. Kidman and the writers cannot decide what to do with Masha, and she seems unbalanced; sometimes she is a monster, and other times she is a helpful guru who cares about her participants’ wellbeing. Part of the reason is that Kidman’s characterisation of Masha is by far her worst performance yet. Kidman’s performance is not powerful enough, with her unbelievable Russian accent and whispered wisdom shared with the participants. The writers spend too much time focusing on Masha’s backstory. Perhaps the point is to centre Masha’s trauma, but with that many characters and less time to develop the other characters’ storyline, her arc seems incomplete and all over the place.
In the end, Nine Perfect Strangers is a powerless and tedious retreat that does not spring any kind of mystery to the show’s storytelling. There are so many characters’ stories that are left blank, like Yao, Delilah, and Glory, who seem to be pushed to the back, leaving the audience with no idea what their purpose on the show is at all. With an excellent group of actors, Nine Perfect Strangers still is not enough to hold the kind of emotional and physical transformation that Masha aimed for at the beginning of the show. Trust the process. But what happens when the whole process is full of lies and deceit?
