SPOILERS BELOW! — But am I really spoiling anything? Nah.
I just finished binging The Perfect Couple, a six episode series on Netflix based on the book of the same name by Elin Hilderbrand. I only learned that the series was based on a book after I watched all six episodes and went looking for reviews.
Specifically, I wanted to understand what happened at the end because it made no sense to me (more on that later). As it turns out, there are many differences between the book and the series, including the nature of the crime (the main plot point), and its motive.
Reviews have noted that all the characters in the series seem flatter and less sympathetic without the benefit of being able to read their inner thoughts included in the book. I agree that all the characters are one dimensional, especially given there were six one hour long episodes in which to give at least one a little more depth.
This is a female led series, with Nicole Kidman as the family matriarch. She’s an uptight, controlling bitch who makes everyone sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). She is less than pleased with her middle son’s soon-to-be wife, a zoologist, aka regular person, who she doesn’t think is good enough to be part of the family.
Kidman and I are the same age, so while she’s no longer an ingénue, she still has the lead part. In an industry where women over 30 are given invisibility cloaks to mark the end of their careers, it’s nice to see one shake it off every once in a while.
Does it matter if you know that Kidman’s character is a very successful mystery writer who will be launching her next book after her son’s wedding on their Nantucket property? Or that her husband is a philandering, pot smoking, borderline alcoholic? Not really. I think the title The Perfect Couple tells you they are quite the opposite. Not to mention that all rich people suck, right?
I think a lot of women my age, including me, can relate to Kidman’s character. The one who holds the family together and does all the work just to have her ungrateful family fuck everything up. Isn’t it enough that she supports everyone financially with her books? Nope. She has to clean up all their messes too.
Kidman is not meant to be sympathetic, that’s saved for the would-be-daughter-in-law (who shows no signs of being a super smart scientist). She’s taken Kidman’s place in real life as the ingénue, and in the series as the woman her son loves most.
Kidman’s husband, played by Liev Schreiber (also my age, we went to the same junior high school in Manhattan), is handsome and charismatic. Although he is sleeping around, the lead housekeeper loves him, in a motherly sort of way, as if saying, “My son can do no wrong.”
Rape culture is alive and well! Schreiber’s behavior as a rich, married, older man taking advantage of younger women who come into his orbit through his adult children is excused as men being men, rather than viewed as predatory.
At the end of the first episode, someone has died on the morning of the wedding. The bride-to-be finds her maid of honor floating in the low tide and from there it’s a whodunit mystery.
This is where it gets interesting for me as the book has an entirely different ending – it isn’t a murder after all, it was an accidental set of circumstances which led to the death. In the series, all those circumstances are intentional: drugging the maid-of-honor and holding her head under water until she stops moving. The motive is money, of course, and the greed of the oldest son’s pregnant wife (he’s also cheating, but with an older French woman).
All the female characters are bitches, madonnas or whores although it’s only Kidman who has a transformation from a bitchy, uptight, long suffering wife into an actual whore, (a hooker with a heart of gold) when she reveals that she met her husband when she was an escort (high class of course!) and he was a “customer” – three times! The sons all groan upon learning this news, not because their father was a john, but because their mother slept with men for money.
Suddenly Kidman has been shoved off her high horse, and she’s happy the truth has all come out. Finally, she can be herself, which it turns out is a nice person. In the last scene, set six months in the future at a zoo in London, Kidman seeks out her ex-would-be daughter-in-law.
She’s written another book, this time about the younger woman, admitting she was jealous of her (not for her youth and beauty, but for taking her place with the son). It’s easy to admit she was wrong to feel that way given the engagement is off.
I still don’t understand why Kidman would feel so bad about her treatment of miss ingénue (I really can’t be bothered to give the character or the actress a name). It seems highly implausible that she would care that much about the woman who isn’t even engaged to her son anymore.
Did the writers feel they needed to absolve Kidman completely? Are middle aged women who take care of everyone else not allowed to be angry or annoyed? That’s kind of my go to state. I liked bitchy badass controlling Kidman much better than mea culpa Kidman, but that’s just me.
Do I recommend The Perfect Couple? Not really. There’s got to be better shows to watch, but I do like Nicole Kidman. I just wish her character didn’t feel the need to “be nice”, at least not in such a demonstrative way. Couldn’t she just have sent flowers with a note?
The Perfect Couple: A Midlife Woman's Review [Includes Spoilers!]