Tag: Nicole Kidman
The Perfect Couple, an American seaside mystery based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand, was released on Netflix in September.
Set in Nantucket in an opulent mansion, Greer Garrison Winbury (Nicole Kidman), a famous murder mystery author, is obsessing over the wedding for her favorite son, Benji (newcomer Billy Howle), to a middle-class zookeeper, Amelia (Eve Hewson of “Bad Sisters”). The wedding is abruptly interrupted when the maid-of-honor, Merrit (Meghann Fahy), is discovered face down on the beach in front of their estate. The wedding is...
“Roar”–Hear My Voice
Roar is a new Apple mini-series, a show-and-tell of eight feminist vignettes based upon Cecelia Ahern’s 2018 short story anthology. Highlighting the unexpected onslaught of devastating events from family, friends, corporations, and community, Roar attempts to address what women are trying to express about themselves. The opening graphic–a feminist scream of a vulva-suggesting mouth stretching wide inside of a rose–perhaps says it best. Hear my voice!
Each of the self-contained episodes begins with the title “The Woman...
“Being the Ricardos”–Making America Great Again
Academy-Award nominated Being the Ricardos (2021) opens in the the year 1939 with a handsome 22-year old Cuban singer named Desi Arnaz (played by Javier Bardem), touring the country with his orchestra. After Lucille Ball (Nicole Kidman) and Desi fall in love and marry, Desi continues to have modest success on tour while Lucille struggles with bit parts in low-budget films.
After ten years trying to breakthrough to stardom, Lucille turns to radio, and with “My Favorite Husband”, finds a popular medium for her comic timing. CBS asks her to...
“Nine Perfect Strangers”–A Hot Mess
Nine Perfect Strangers is based on the Liane Moriarty novel by the same name. Starring Nicole Kidman as Masha, a spiritual therapist, she is reputed to heal all wounds of her wealthy clients at her wellness retreat, Tranquillum.
Following closely after the release of White Lotus (see my August 17, 2021 review), the same territory is explored: why do uber-rich white people seem so unhappy? There is the damaged novelist (Melissa McCarthy) who just can’t trust anyone. Another has a virulent past of drug addiction (the superb Bobby Cannavale as a physically...
“The Undoing”–Deeds Undone
This HBO original mini-series, The Undoing, is a police procedural based upon the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz.
We observe the daily life of a highly successful New York therapist, Grace Fraser (Nicole Kidman), a specialist in marriage counseling, as well her husband, Jonathan (Hugh Grant), a successful pediatric oncologist. Their teenage son Henry attends an elite private school which receives generous donations from Grace’s father (Donald Sutherland). At a school fundraiser...
“The Goldfinch”–Art and Loss
Goldfinch (2020), based upon Donna Tartt’s Pulitzer-Prize winning novel, tells the story of a young boy, Theo ( the astonishing Oakes Fegley), who is walking through galleries with his beloved mother at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. They gaze at a Dutch Master painting of a chained bird, the Goldfinch, when a terrorist bomb goes off. Theo’s mother dies and he escapes the rubble, clutching the 17th-century masterpiece and a dying man’s insistence that he take his ring. The little boy’s...