Nicole in HBO's "The Undoing"
Tuesday, November 3, 2020 at 6:00PM by Eric Blume
There are few things in life more exquisite than watching Nicole Kidman unravel. And she does so with her usual panache in the new HBO miniseries The Undoing, from director Susanne Bier.
HBO is releasing the six episodes week by week, so we're currently only two episodes in, but what we have on our hands with The Undoing is a genuine potboiler! The program slowly lays out its icy upper east side NYC terrain with careful deliberation, only to end the initial episode with a fun corker that sets Nicole into a fiery actressy spiral...
Try to come to The Undoing with an little awarness of the plot. Suffice it to say it's about a wealthy couple (Kidman and Hugh Grant) with a young son (Honey Boy's amazing Noah Jupe) at a private academy in the city. Some bad stuff happens. Nicole's hair is red and cascading. That's all one needs to know.
Bier's Danish film In a Better World won the Best Foreign Film Oscar in 2010, and she won an Emmy for directing the superlative miniseries The Night Manager with Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman. Bier's specialty is not with subtle characterization, but she's ace at creating paranoiac tension. In both The Night Manager and here, she has a superb instinct for how to get you to put your hand in her vise so she can slowly tighten the screws.
The first half hour of episode one takes a while to find its footing, and its evocation of upper east side elite feels just a little too too, but once the plot starts unraveling, Bier pushes scene after scene with force, and the whole thing takes on a feverish weirdness. There's a scene in episode two where Kidman is stumbling around in a viciously green coat that recalls Jeanne Moreau stalking through Elevator to the Gallows in its atmospheric strangeness.
Hugh Grant and Tom Hanks should get drinks together, because they are both doing far more interesting work than they were back when they were "acclaimed" in the 1990s. Here, Grant displays his freakishly effortless ability to play the comedy wherever it might be available, but he's also appropriately off in a way that feels true to the character and helps generate necessary doubt and mystery.
And then, of course, there's Nicole. It remains to be seen if this is going to be a major or minor role in the Kidman canon, but she turns herself over to Bier with complete trust (always one of her greatest attributes as an actor), and Bier rewards her with moments both glamorous and messy. Kidman's physical beauty here is overwhelming, and she's able to bring the viewer right into her own mind and thoughts without ever telegraphing. She's not getting the chance to go toe-to-toe with other actors yet, as her role requires her to feel isolated and alone, but she's got a camera to work with, and Kidman's connection to that has always served her well.
Who else is watching The Undoing? Thoughts in the comments section, as always...
Emmys, HBO, Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman, Noah Jupe, Susanne Bier, TV, The Undoing, thriller, whodunnit?
Reader Comments (19)
Kidman looks like a million bucks in this. And seems to me to be an unreliable narrator (or unreliable POV protagonist). I'm hooked.
And it's always great to see/hear Donald Sutherland (once again playing Kidman's father).
I love the way NYC is captured in this. Nicole has great chemistry with the other actors ( Grant, Jupe, Sutherland and Lily Rabe).
This series reminds me of the 90s thriller; it feels a bit trashy ( in a good way) but totally enjoyable.
First a glorious appreciation of Keaton. And now a winning look at Kidman. Hey, Blume. Are you tryin' to take Claudio's title? Keep at it. You might.
The show is pure TRASH so far. Horrible direction. Horrible cinematography. Horrible editing. How many shots do we need to see a close-up of her eye? That said Kidman and grant are really enjoyable to watch. They’re great! The show is bad bad bad though but not unenjoyable. Also its way too much like big little lies with all those rich white bitches at the private school. I hate those scenes. I guess Laura Dern was busy so they cast Lily Rabe?
I like it but i think maybe it's bad? Two episodes in though so only 3rd of the way through. I do love unreliable POV in art though. It's fun.the point Eric makes about nicole not getting to play much with the other actors is insightful though. I am really needing that. This is a bit like THE OTHERS in that she's kind of in a vacuum. Not that that can't be it's only special thing but still.
I'm loving it so far! High gloss, well-acted, refined trash. Bonus points for having a mystery that's actually not completely obvious. An actual dissection on NYC class structure would be interesting, but this doesn't seem to want to dangle more than its toes into that subject. At least it's supremely entertaining, which is more than I can say for Luca Guadagnino's <I>We Are Who We Are</I> which had some truly mesmerizing moments, but was undone for me by some truly annoying characters, i.e. those damn kids.
It has been a struggle to get into any new shows for me during this pandemic... show I do watch, I watch haphazardly... missing a lot of it and not caring... or I give up after a few minutes. This is the first show that hooked me and is actually making me anxious for the next episodes to arrive. Nicole is captivating, yet again. Maybe it was just me, but the scene on the porch towards the end of episode 2 - Kidman's face and frantic toss of her blanket gave me shivers. I can't wait to see how the rest goes... for now, I'm legitimately hooked.
The two first episodes were dynamite for me! So thrilling and just a fun ride!
Kidman is so beautiful here as well. So elegant, classy and New York.
I like the how Grace is making herself more suspicious and I want to know why she does that. The kitchen scene where the two detectives are asking her lots of questions, she is obviously nervous. What is that?
I got constant flashes from her previous work like:
- The opening scene in episode 1 reminded me of her character in Eyes Wide Shut
- Grace wondering around in schock and trance reminded me of Virginia in The Hours
- Grace relationship with her son reminded me of her work in The Killing of the Sacred Deer
- The way she carries herself reminded me of her work in The Others
I am also very pleased with her face. She has hopefully stop doing the horrible botox stuff that made her face alien with no expressions
The second episode of this show is legitimately one of the best performances Kidman has ever given, in my opinion. She goes from confusion to fear to exhaustion to haughty indignation to disgust and back again....sometimes all in the same scene. It's kind of crazy what she does in that episode.LOL!
I thought this would be a slow burn performance like the first season of Big Little Lies, where the layers unpeeled slowly episode after episode. But nope, Kidman is doing the tour de force stuff early. If she's already this good, this early, I wonder where is left for her character/performance to go?
Agreed with other commenters - it's trashy and requires a lot of suspension of disbelief to go with the different plot points. Nicole Kidman is giving you EYEBALL ACTING - maybe she's not that good in this? Or she's having to fill in too much from the script? Do we think she's wearing a wig, it's her hair, or lots of pieces?
As for the "trashy" stuff....some of y'all sound like snobs. Yeah, this show clearly isn't supposed to be high art, but it's fun, exciting and has some dynamite acting and luxurious NYC property porn. In other words, this show is my idea of a damned good time (and a good show)!
The rest of y'all can watch boring snorefests like Mrs America, which suffocate you with their "importance". I prefer to be entertained if I invest in a new show, and The Undoing is doing that very well so far (if it starts to suck, I'll be back to let you know.hahaha).
Enjoying it so far, and don't know where it is going! LOVE Nicole as a Ginger again!
And, since I was just in NYC on vacation 3 weeks ago, loving the scenery.
Really appreciate you sharing this blog post.Much thanks again. Fantastic and waiting for more info
It might not be high-brow material, but I'm finding this superentertaining and she cast is great (obvs). So far, Kidman was fantastic in episode 2. I got really strong The Others vibes in the sequence where she wakes up in the middle of the night while at her cottage.
I was so entranced by just watching Kidman wander in that green coat, that I barely noticed the plot machinations. That is all I need sometimes--watching Nicole Kidman wander around in a fabulous floor length dark emerald green coat.
Love it! Completely hooked. Kidman is a vision for the eyes, ya heard? I also want that burgundy coat she was wearing in the pilot, but don't tell anyone.
I think it's kinda trash, but fun trash? I do wish the mystery felt a little more...mysterious. So far a lot of the plot points that I expected to happen have happened, but it's early. The cast is good and I think Nicole was especially strong in the last half of the second episode.
Look I love me some Nicole and she's definitely doing a good job with what she's given. Even when she's less than stellar she's never just coasting and this is certainly not a bad or even mediocre performance.
But I really hope she switches it up tonally at some point soon, especially if she's going to be working as much as she has been. This is like the 8th consecutive project where the camera essentially just locks in on her face while she does "subtle" emoting while looking grave and overcome with consternation or, if she's playing a mom, with sage wisdom and stoic understanding. It's becoming a bit heavy handed and repetitive for me. I've never thought of her as super versatile exactly but she definitely has a lighter touch and more variation to her approach than she's been showing lately. I guess the Prom could change that but that's not a project I can be too excited about. Like Laura Dern, she's an actress that I'm super happy is getting the love and attention she deserves (though of course she was always a bigger name and star than Dern) but the actual projects getting her this attention are not ones I'd personally qualify as her best or even her most interesting work.
This is killing me! Every week a crazy cliff hanger... and now this? I was suspecting Grace's father because he knew where the Alves' lived. How would he know. And the motive is clear. But this suspect (no spoiler, you have to watch) ??? Could he do it? Damn it. Now I have to wait another week to find out what happens next.