‘The Perfect Couple’ Circles Around Familiar Tropes About the Elite With a Killer Ensemble Led by Nicole Kidman

Alci Rengifo

Watch enough of these shows about murderous rich families that studios have been producing and you will never want to be invited to dinner with someone who owns a private jet. Netflix’s “The Perfect Couple” is the latest limited series that combines a murder mystery with a sarcastic takedown of high privilege. A lot of top tier talent is gathered all around. Nicole Kidman leads the ensemble as a refined mother-in-law designed to send shivers. Acclaimed director Susanne Bier helms this adaptation of an Elin Hilderbrand beach read which is surely fine as a paperback distraction. With a gathering of this type, the show turns out to be surprisingly timid. We want more debauchery before the temptation to lose interest sets in.

Nantucket is the setting. The Winbury clan has gathered for a wedding on the Massachusetts island. Famed author Greer Garrison Winbury (Kidman) and husband Tag (Liev Schreiber) oversee their spoiled spawn for the nuptials of son Benji (Billy Howle) to Amelia Sacks (Eve Hewson), a sharp girl not of proper breeding. The rest of the Winbury kids include Thomas (Jack Reynor), his pregnant wife, Abby (Dakota Fanning), and younger sibling, Will (Sam Nivola). Guests begin arriving such as the best man, Shooter (Ishaan Khatter) and Amelia’s best friend and maid of honor, Merritt Monaco (Meghann Fahy). The bride’s parents arrive and all is running on time. When the sun rises on the day of the wedding, Merritt is found dead floating by the beach. Detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) and Chief of Police Dan Carter (Michael Beach) arrive on the scene to get answers.

Shot with that rather clean, typical Netflix look, “The Perfect Couple” feels like a tour of familiar haunts. It has the lavish home, the dialogue has enjoyably cruel one-liners about how the rich see the rest of society (“more sugar is the last thing poor people need”), and characters are the typical archetypes. Benji is the bland but nice rich guy marrying Amelia, who’s too good for him. Thomas has nothing but ego and obnoxious remarks. Dakota Fanning is a standout as the cold, snobby Abby, who doesn’t care about staring down those she considers beneath her, like Merritt, a social media figure. Nicole Kidman has played this role so many times she feels as if all she had to do was walk on set, pick her own wardrobe and recite. She’s very good, no doubt, showing off her range where she can be an ice queen when needed. 

No one strikes a false note. The true weakness of “The Perfect Couple” is its potential for appeal beyond the usual rich family murder mystery. Susanne Bier lets the story drag for the first three episodes out of six, at times becoming too repetitive. Or it feels that way because there’s not much to uncover in order to generate genuine intrigue. Liev Schreiber’s Tag turns out to be another middle-aged rich guy with sex appeal, polishing his sailboat while Thomas asks for another loan. We’re not at all surprised to learn Tag was also sleeping with the victim, since every wealthy guy with graying hair is meant to do so in a mystery. Greer assures Benji she doesn’t mind that Amelia is working class, because the girl loves her son. Sure. Later on, mysterious jewelry appears for other characters to connect the dots about who is fooling around with whom. Secret pregnancies are waiting to provide a convenient twist. You know there’s going to be trouble when Eve glances at a naked Shooter at a beach shower, because how could there not have been unmentioned feelings in this circle of friends?

The only character we generate real sympathy for is Will, who is dating Chief Carter’s daughter and gives us hope someone decent can come out of this nest of snobby vipers. The cops and detectives are really just here for needed narration. Donna Lynne Champlin and Michael Beach are as good as the rest of the cast, though they’re relegated to mostly sitting in interrogation rooms, bars and police headquarters doing all the thinking for us. For film buffs, a welcome yet curious surprise is the great actor Isabelle Adjani as Isabel Nallet, a family friend who relishes in being a flirtatious bon vivant, witnessing all the drama while snatching a young prospect where she can. Adjani’s own film catalog is legendary, including roles in films like Werner Herzog’s “Nosferatu.” Her character doesn’t prove too essential, yet we love every moment of her screen time. 

When an arrest is finally made it feels a bit anticlimactic. Nothing much is learned or gained aside from confirmation that what you see is what you get with some people. Some elites are given such confidence by their wealth that they could care less about being openly dismissive, even monstrous. That is something “The Perfect Couple” gets, despite much of its content feeling watered down and more like what its source material is, an ok beach read. You can’t necessarily call this bad television, considering the talent involved. It has an ensemble of notables gathering for a phoned-in case. These days, in this economy, many don’t mind eating the rich on our streaming platforms. The bite just needs to be delivered with either more boldness, edge or at least some originality. A million ways can exist to carry out a murderous scheme. “A Perfect Couple” needs less autopilot and new approaches to its dirty deeds.

“The Perfect Couple” begins streaming Sept. 5 on Netflix.