"Wellness, here I come", exclaims romance writer Frances (Melissa McCarthy) in the car on the way to a "transformation retreat" at the secret and expensive spa Tranquillum, which offers complete spiritual renewal during a ten-day stay.
The feel-good culture
may have its center in Southern California where Nine Perfect Strangers takes place, but has a firm grip on the western world as a whole.
CBT, astrology and silent retreats, infrared sauna and periodic fasting.
Methods with the common denominator that the individual is responsible for his or her own well-being.
Frances soon meets Tranquillum's other guests, a motley crowd of wounded souls: the Marconi family, traumatized by their son Zach's suicide, the former football star Tony (Bobby Cannavale), lost in opioid addiction, the precocious but beneath the surface life-threatening Carmel (Regina Hall), whose husband left her for a younger woman, among others.
Everyone has come to
the aid of the mysterious, elf-like Masha, played by Nicole Kidman.
At first, the participants have to perform a series of more or less strange exercises, such as competing in sack jumping or digging their own graves.
Many people feel discomfort.
Several participants make attempts to leave the place, but no one does.
And why would they?
One by one, their secrets are revealed and several of them actually feel better after a few days.
"She is so cool, so unfathomable that it is impossible to get a grip on her."
This is roughly how I wrote about Nicole Kidman's role interpretation in her previous series The Undoing.
The character Grace, I thought, stood in the way of the viewer's sympathy and commitment.
In fact, if possible, Masha is even cooler and even more unfathomable.
But it matters less in Nine Perfect Strangers.
Here it is the ensemble
, rather than Kidman, that forms the main role.
Experienced Bobby Cannavale makes a meaty and furious role interpretation of his sore asshole for the football veteran.
The interaction between him and Melissa McCarthy (what fun to see the Bridesmaids star in a drama role!) Is a big part of the treasure, along with the Marconi family's gradual breakdown of the defense strategies they clung to after their son's sudden suicide.
Because in the sincere encounter with both their own demons and the other participants, the masks fall and perhaps the story points to the collective as a solution to supposedly individual problems.
Nine Perfect Strangers
is far from perfect.
In addition to Nicole Kidman's strange role interpretation, there are unnecessary things in the script (mysterious death threats against Masha we would have done very well without), a strange insensitivity in the editing, especially in the previous episodes, and maybe one or two threads too much in the overall plot.
But stories can be scattered and incomplete.
Today's streamed TV series tend to feel a little unwilling at times: the result of a click-maximizing algorithm machine.
In the end, it is the acting performances and the ensemble's humanity that make Nine Perfect Strangers worth seeing and enjoying.