Unfortunately, even in an eight-episode miniseries (six of which were made available to critics ahead of time), Kelley and the "Nine" writers struggle to fit everything they want to say and do into the episodes. It's easy to see how the complicated and layered story could unfold with ease on the page, with the unlimited words a novelist has to lay out her players and plots. Chaos, predictably, ensues at Tranquillum.Īll the books becoming movies in 2021: ‘The Last Letter from Your Lover,' 'Dune' and more Similarly, she plays her employees Delilah and Yao, who are in a romantic relationship, against each other to keep things going her way. Masha's methods may appear the same as other Instagrammable spas and rehabs, but there is something darker going on in how she is treating and manipulating her guests for their "health" and her personal goals. There are a lot of backstories to get through, and a lot of egos and personalities that clash when the nine strangers start to get wrapped in Masha's web.
More than anything else, the Hulu series feels hollow.
"Nine" is mediocre compared to Kelley's other work, which includes a long list of TV classics such as "The Practice" and "Ally McBeal." It's a huge disappointment considering its star-studded cast – Kidman, Melissa McCarthy, Bobby Cannavale, Regina Hall and Luke Evans, to name a few – and bestselling source material. Instead, "Nine" (first three episodes now streaming then weekly on Wednesdays, ★★ out of four) is a moderately serviceable soapy thriller about, well, nine perfect strangers at a shady wellness retreat run by eccentric guru Masha (Kidman).īut fine is as good as the quality of the series gets. Her search leads her to Harrison Hill (Bruce Willis). Kelley with the Emmy-winning HBO series, don't expect the depth or complexity of "Lies" here. Rowena Price (Halle Berry), a reporter, uses her investigative skills to solve the murder of a friend.
All in all, this movie is between a 4 and a 5 out of 10, mostly rental material.Watch Video: Selena Gomez and Steve Martin's new Hulu show and other must-see TVĪlthough Hulu's "Nine Perfect Strangers" is based on another novel by Liane Moriarty, and it shares star Nicole Kidman and writer/producer David E. Another problem is that both their characters are not very interesting, and yet another one is that there is no erotic heat between them, because Bruce is too old for Halle - although their age difference is only 11 years, he would even be more acceptable as her father than as her lover! In a supporting role, Giovani Ribisi is marginally more interesting than the two leads. Bruce Willis has a couple of good scenes, but the rest of the time he pretty much sleepwalks through his role. Released October 25th, 2005, The Perfect Stranger stars Pamela Brumley, Jefferson Moore, Tyler Hudson The G movie has a runtime of about 1 hr 30 min, and received a user score of 64 (out of 100. Halle Berry is GORGEOUS in this movie - I personally think this woman is getting more beautiful every year - but her acting is a bit forced, especially at her "big" moments.
But then the ending comes, and it's a cheat - the perfect planning required for it is simply too far-fetched (IMDB trivia says they filmed three alternative endings with three alternative killers: the one chosen in the final cut was probably the worst). The film improves somewhat in the middle, with a couple of tense scenes (like the one in the car with Willis suspecting Berry of being a spy, or Berry's entrance into Ribisi's "secret room"), and a few interesting (if brief) views of the net-chatting world. The film starts off poorly - it's a whodunit, but the victim is a character who appears in just one scene before getting bumped off, so we don't have enough time to like or even hate (as it usually happens in, say, the Agatha Christie mysteries) her so it's harder to find a reason to care who killed her. Before seeing "Perfect Stranger", I was hoping for another hidden gem like "Twisted" (2004), which was also a murder mystery with a female lead and other big names in the cast and also got bad reviews sadly, this film isn't it.