Nicole Kidman has become known over her long career for playing enigmatic, yet strong characters. She is a five-time Oscar nominee, and she took home a win for her 2003 role in The Hours. She’s played everyone from Virginia Woolf to Lucille Ball, but lately she’s proven how skilled she is at playing wealthy women with some serious secrets. Kidman won an Emmy in 2017 for her role as Celeste Wright in the HBO hit series, Big Little Lies, and played a similar ice queen character in 2020’s The Undoing. Her latest role as Greer Garrison Winbury in Netflix’s The Perfect Couple further establishes that Kidman knows her way around a twisty mystery, but her role in Hulu’s Nine Perfect Strangers previously illustrated her talents in the genre.
‘Nine Perfect Strangers’ Is a Mysterious and Compelling Drama
When the eight-episode series premiered in 2021, Kidman got a lot of attention for her long, white-blond wig and (sometimes questionable) Russian accent. But the buzz surrounding the show also consisted of fans talking about how intriguing the series was and how Kidman was clearly the standout in the ensemble cast. The series, based on a Liane Moriarty book of the same name, follows nine individuals as they embark on a spiritual journey at a health and wellness retreat called Tranquillium House.
Kidman plays Masha Dmitrichenko, the ethereal beauty who runs the center. Her employees, Yao (Manny Jacinto) and Delilah (Tiffany Boone), sometimes question Masha’s more non-traditional methods. The nine guests include Napoleon (Michael Shannon) and Heather Marconi (Asher Keddie) and their daughter, Zoe (Grace Van Patten), a family who is reeling after the death of Zoe’s twin brother; Frances Welty (Melissa McCarthy), a writer who’s been burned by an Internet romance; Lars Lee (Luke Evans), a handsome man with a hidden agenda for attending the spa; Ben (Melvin Gregg) and Jessica Chandler (Samara Weaving), happy newlyweds who have a surprising reason for their wealth; Tony Hogburn (Bobby Cannavale), a former football player struggling with addiction; and Carmel Schneider (Regina Hall), a single mother who’s trying to cope with her husband leaving her.
As the nine guests try to cohabitate together in this lush, pristine environment in California, they start to notice that Masha’s techniques go far beyond simply encouraging them to eat a healthier diet or to get in touch with their spiritual side. Several strange events occur, which force each person to doubt Masha and her motives. Is she truly acting out of her desire to help these people or is she just messing with them for her own enjoyment? Or could both be at play here?
Every episode reveals a little bit more about each of the guests so that their identities and what they’re truly struggling with are depicted in greater detail. Each of them is broken by something life has thrown at them, and their mental health is suffering. But they are able to use each other as support to help them climb out of their respective holes. Between Masha floating around in an eerie way and the dream-like (sometimes dangerous) situations that arise, the guests begin wondering if the folks at Tranquillium House are hiding something. The series’ tone switches back and forth from humor (mostly via McCarthy) to horror, which makes each episode a wild ride.
Nicole Kidman Plays an Enigmatic Lead in ‘Nine Perfect Strangers’
Although all the characters in the series are fascinating in their messiness, Masha is clearly the most damaged. At first, it seems like Masha is just a better version of everyone else (she abstains from sugar, has a daily meditation practice, etc.), and it’s clear from the locale that she has so far been extremely successful with her finances. She seems to be running a resort that caters to people doing pretty well in life. But really Masha is running from her own trauma-filled past just as much as the people she’s trying to treat. As the episodes unfold, there are more flashes of Masha’s temper, which points to the fact that she’s not as serene as she pretends to be. She also makes herself sit at the bottom of the pool, signifying that she’s always pushing herself to her limits. There are a lot of layers to Masha, and the reality of that ends up poking holes in the picture-perfect appearance she tries to project.
This ability to portray someone with otherworldly beauty who is still extremely damaged has become Kidman’s calling card. Because of her past, Masha is constantly trying to outrun her own pain, and this leads to her using methods of healing that could be either brilliant or kind of disturbing. Because Kidman plays Masha as a woman who is verging on being unstable, there is an element of unease that helps the series become a thrilling journey. No one staying at Tranquillium House knows what to expect, and neither does the viewer. With a less capable actor, Masha would be a caricature (especially with the accent). However, with Kidman’s ability to channel authentic emotions, Masha is a cryptic, often inscrutable figure who is inherently interesting. Does Masha hold some magical ability or is she just able to see what people need in order to heal? And there’s a third possibility as well: could Masha just be a charlatan who’s charging big bucks to people who are looking for a quick fix to their emotional problems?
Nine Perfect Strangers gives Kidman the chance to bring another complicated woman to the screen. One reviewer noted that Masha is “another deep and challenging role,” and although the series is more of an ensemble drama, it does give Kidman plenty of scenery to chew. Plus, when it debuted in August 2021, it was the most-watched original series that had ever aired on Hulu at the time. In June 2023, it was announced that the limited series would actually be coming back for a second season. Kidman will return as Masha, with even more star-studded supporting cast members that include Murray Bartlett, Annie Murphy, Christine Baranski, and Henry Golding. Although there’s no official release date yet, it is exciting that Kidman will get the opportunity to dig even further into this complex character.
Season 1 of Nine Perfect Strangers is available to stream on Hulu in the U.S.
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