Hidden behind a shock of blond hair and a lilting Russian accent, Nicole Kidman’s ethereal Masha glides through “Nine Perfect Strangers,” offering words of wisdom and advice.
Masha, she promises, has all the answers for her guests, a mixed bag of grieving families, fighting couples and lonely singles. But at no point does Masha appear to have any answers for herself.
“Nine Perfect Strangers,” David E. Kelley’s adaptation of Liane Moriarty’s novel that premiered Wednesday on Hulu, sets its story at Tranquillum, a mysterious wellness resort, based in Northern California but shot in Australia, that offers its guests whatever they’re looking for.
Bestselling author Frances (Melissa McCarthy), reeling from a betrayal, is searching for hope. Tony (Bobby Cannavale) needs a solution to his dependence on drugs. The Marconis, dad Napoleon (Michael Shannon), mom Heather (Asher Keddie) and daughter Zoe (Grace Van Patten) are looking for a way out of their sorrow. Jessica (Samara Weaving) and Ben (Melvin Gregg) are hoping for last-ditch marriage counseling. Carmel (Regina Hall) and Lars (Luke Evans) are looking for peace.
“A lot of these characters can’t be present because of painful things that happened to them in the past or painful things about themselves they can’t confront,” director Jonathan Levine told the Daily News.
“Through being at this retreat, hopefully, at the end, they’re able to be in that moment a little more.”
Over the course of eight episodes, the mysteries of “Nine Perfect Strangers” unravel, first those of the guests, then the Tranquillum employees, played by Manny Jacinto and Tiffany Boone, and, eventually, Masha herself. Her secrets are unrolled slowly in threatening text messages and flashback scenes.
“The question that keeps getting thrown up throughout is how far would (Heather) go?” Keddie, the 47-year-old Australian actress playing the Marconi matriarch, told The News.
“How far would any of us go to try to reconnect with someone that we’ve lost, for one, and how far would we go to try to reconnect and be good and be supportive with our own families after a loss like this?”
The Marconis, in particular, are a fascinating character study in therapy: three people who need individual healing from a devastating loss, but who, at the same time, are still trying to work their way back to each other.
“Everyone goes through grief at points in their lives and every kind of person goes through grief,” Van Patten, the 24-year-old actress who plays Zoe Marconi, told The News. “There’s no right way or wrong way to do it.”
At Tranquillum, sometimes that healing looks like a potato sack race. Sometimes it’s digging your own grave. Sometimes it’s a conversation with Masha, who expects complete honesty and openness while hiding seemingly all of her own truths.
Among Masha’s secrets is what she wants. Tranquillum, for her, is clearly a means to an end, but that end is unclear. She runs experiments on her guests, talks about how she chose this group, specifically, like she’s talking about a chemical reaction. She waits for the explosion.
“The amazing thing about Nicole is she’s fearless,” Levine told The News.
“Nicole always wanted to navigate that line between weird and magical and creepy and warm. To me, that’s not dissimilar from what this whole show’s trying to do: it’s thriller, it’s drama, it’s so many different things. For me, always, when I’m in a situation where you have to balance all these things, the guiding light is to be true to the core of the humanity of the people.”
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