The Perfect Couple review: A talented cast let down by shallow writing

Despite a promising setup, Netflix's 'The Perfect Couple,' starring Nicole Kidman and Ishaan Khatter, fails to intrigue with its shallow characters and predictable plot.

A rich family? Check. Lavish farmhouse wedding? Check. Scandals? Secrets? Murder? Check, check, check. So, what could be new in this whodunit? I wondered. But hey, even familiar stories can be entertaining if told well. Plus, Nicole Kidman and Ishaan Khatter together? This might actually work! Spoiler alert: It didn’t. Sussane Bier's The Perfect Couple, despite its potential, is a drag.

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Meet the Winsbury family: Greer (Kidman), the matriarch, is married to Tag (Isaac Liev Schreiber), who inherited a fortune. Their rude oldest son, Thomas (Jack Reynor), is married to Abby (Dakota Fanning), who sucks up to the family for their power. Along with troubled youngest son Will (Sam Nivola) and family friend Shooter (Ishaan Khatter), they gather at their beach house for their other son Benji’s (Billy Howle) wedding to Amelia (Eve Hewson), who doesn’t fit in because she isn’t rich. On the wedding morning, Amelia’s best friend and maid of honor, Merrit (Meghann Fahy), is found dead. Everyone's a suspect.

The series starts on a typical note: a rich family full of secrets, pretending to be happy when they’re miserable. There are scandalous affairs and marriages of convenience. While the show keeps highlighting how shallow the rich are, it barely explores why they behave that way. It tries to build mystery using a Rashomon-style narrative. By the third episode, I was getting interested, but soon realized there’s no real depth. The plot is straightforward, with few twists or surprises. The so-called mysteries are hardly thrilling, and the misleading twists are more frustrating than intriguing. Even the detectives rely on family members for information. The biggest weakness is the pacing- it’s too slow to build any real tension.

A major disappointment is the wasted potential of a stellar cast. Kidman effectively portrays her character, keeping her unreadable, but the series lets her down with a shallow, predictable role. Khatter’s character, Shooter, is surrounded by mystery but ultimately amounts to nothing. All the actors try their best to portray complexity but the script gives them very little to work with. The characters seem intriguing at first but lack real depth. Their motives are always weak, and though they seem well-packaged at first, eventually, they feel hollow. Both the cast and the audience deserved better.

The Perfect Couple is currently streaming on Netflix.