by Christine Westwood

Based on the novel by Sydney author Liane Moriarty, the eight-part series is set in the upmarket Tranquilum health-and-wellness resort where nine stressed city dwellers seek a cure for their various life breakdowns. It’s a search for nirvana that leads them to hand over their power, and their iphones, to the enigmatic resort host Masha, with Nicole Kidman in the headline role.

The pleasure in viewing this screen adaptation comes largely from the stellar cast. And if you are a pleasure seeker, then another destination for you is polskie kasyna online.

Standouts are Michael Shannon as uncool dad to Zoe (Grace van Patten) and husband to Heather (Asher Keddie). These three are excellent as a grieving family sitting on a powder keg of emotion. Even more on the edge is ex pro footballer Tony, a walking case of PTSD, played brilliantly by Bobby Cannavale. Melissa McCarthy is always terrific value, and she carries off the pivotal role of romance writer Francis with her trademark warmth and sly humour.

Samara Weaving, as a lottery winner and Instagram tragic, is also great to watch.

The role of health retreat guru Masha was always going to be hard to pull off. She is portrayed in the book as mesmerising, stunning in a barely human way (Francis describes her as an ‘alien unicorn’ that they can only aspire to emulate). The residents are fixated on her, both fearing and relishing their 1-to-1 sessions, as she promises to cure them of their deepest traumas.

Actually, she more than promises, she coerces with a tough love mixture of detox and pseudo spiritual experience and finally, illegal drugs. If it sounds like a cult, it is, as Masha has no compunction about crossing every boundary in pursuit of her fanatical quest for wellness. A white-robed Kidman tackles the character with a deranged blend of toxic mother love and charismatic force.

Kidman is also one of the executive producers, teaming again with Bruno Papandrea who also produced the hugely successful Big Little Lies. Author Moriarty is also on the list of producers.

Moriarty is a master of creating an ensemble of characters, whose lives interweave in fateful ways and with an unfolding mystery at the heart. She pulls it off brilliantly in Big Little Lies (and her book The Husband’s Secret) where we are introduced to families and relationships within the setting of a local neighbourhood, based on her Sydney North Shore background.

She said in an ABC interview that she’s always surprised how people get so obsessed – including her – about wellness and self-improvement. “No one can be content with how they are. They’re always striving for more and more.”

It’s this curiosity that led her to write Nine Perfect Strangers as a satire of the wellness industry and an exploration of our search for perfection.

As in her other books, Nine Perfect Strangers interweaves characters and explores relationships, but the setting is by its very nature artificial. We are taken into the different characters’ worlds through flashbacks and sharing anecdotes, so there’s a tendency to feel the characters as ‘types’ being puppeted for the script.

As already mentioned, some of the cast are so excellent that their craft draws you in to care about and enjoy them, especially in a few key one-on-one interactions. For example, there’s a great scene where boorish Tony water bombs a snarky Francis, a couple of nice sweat lodge moments between Zoe and cynic with a heart Lars (Luke Evans), and an unforgettable sack race with a star turn from Weaving.

To drive the story along, the screenplay has ramped up Masha’s backstory with repeated flashbacks, but there is a clunky sense of trying too hard to generate tension and almost comic book horror. Only Cannavale and Shannon manage to pull off a couple of extreme sequences, including something involving a goat…

Samantha Strauss co-wrote the script with the showrunners, David E. Kelley and John Henry Butterworth. Jonathan Levine (50/50, The Wackness) directs and it’s to his credit that he lets the actors off the leash in individual scenes so they can milk their characters’ stories.

Due to the COVID-19 restrictions, the production was moved from the United States to Australia. Fortunately, because of this, 1,400 members of the cast and crew were able to keep their job for six months. The eight-part series was described as a huge financial coup for NSW.

At the time, a mask-wearing Kidman took to Instagram ahead of shooting in Byron Bay to say, ‘Feeling so honoured to have just participated in a Welcome to Country ceremony for Nine Perfect Strangers.’

The stunning Byron Bay/Northern Rivers setting is certainly one reason to tune in. The costumes are great and the whole aesthetic is a pleasure. The introduction music seems to want to emulate the dreamy soundtrack of Big Little Lies, while the opening credits device of fruits in a blender is a rather crude metaphor for Masha’s horror makeover schemes.

Nine Perfect Strangers, produced by Made Up Stories and Blossom Films, will premiere on Amazon Prime Video on August 20.

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