With her wobbly accent and Frozen rip-off wig, Kidman is unconvincing as a wellness guru in this glossy cultish thriller. But McCarthy will make you wriggle with delight
Isn’t it just typical? You wait years for a miniseries about rich Americans pitching up at a luxury retreat to try to find bliss, then two turn up at once. The White Lotus put its assortment on Hawaii in a five-star hotel to let things play out. Nine Perfect Strangers (Amazon Prime) puts them in a holistic wellness spa called Tranquillum House and lets Nicole Kidman loose on them.
Like Big Little Lies before it, Nine Perfect Strangers is a Kidman vehicle based on a Liane Moriarty bestseller and directed by David E Kelley. She plays Masha, a Russian émigré-turned-corporate-badass-turned-wellness-guru who welcomes her new guests in the manner of a hawk inviting mice into a glue trap. Calm, white-uniformed assistants Yao (Manny Jacinto) and Delilah (Tiffany Boone) relieve them of their phones and anything else that will link them to the outside world (or “interrupt your wellness journey”) and usher them into the compound that will deliver “metabolically bespoke” meals, therapy and treatments that promise to unite and heal body and soul.
