‘The Undoing’ Review: An Upscale Manhattan Melodrama

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Review: Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant star in the lavish HBO miniseries 'The Undoing' as a New York couple whose wealthy world is violently upended

an Oscar, made multiplex movies, done a little slumming in European art films, and been a Hollywood star for more decades than one can politely calculate. But her adventures during the current trend of ambitious, female-centric melodramas and brazenly unlaced morality plays—soaps, in a word—have come to constitute an oeuvre all their own. Why not? She can very plausibly portray women of wealth, beauty, privilege and intelligence. And who still seem utterly baffled when someone does them wrong.

Which is certainly what happens in HBO’s “The Undoing,” a six-parter based on the 2014 novel “You Should Have Known” by Jean Hanff Korelitz, directed by the award-winning Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier , and created by the producer David E. Kelley. Mr. Kelley has many credits—most notable, in this particular case, “Big Little Lies.” Ms. Bier has, in subtle ways, brought a cinematic quality to the Kelley TV formula, although one person’s Emmy-aspiring drama is still another person’s wealth porn.

The Frasers, Grace and Jonathan—she’s a therapist, he’s an oncologist—awaken, shower and prepare for their day in what appears at first to be a multistory suburban McMansion until father and son Henry leave for work and school and suddenly are crossing a snow-frosted Central Park to the strains of Vivaldi. Meanwhile, mom goes to work on the other side of town, just as “The Four Seasons” hits a crescendo. The entire production is quite upscale.

The outlier—and there’s always one—is Elena Alves , the “scholarship mom” of a fourth-grader at the elite Reardon School, a longtime beneficiary of Grace’s frighteningly rich and generally fearsome father, Franklin Reinhardt , and a bastion of liberal learning just off Park Avenue.

This is profoundly awkward—not, as Grace is quick to say, “just a mother feeding her baby.” Elena seems so uptight and uncomfortable being the less wealthy mother at the table that what she does actually feels less clumsy than confrontational, as does her next meeting with Grace. It takes place in the gym , where Elena makes conversation while standing stark and quite casually naked in front of a seated Grace.

 

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Schitts Creek prequel

Sounds like what will happen to the wealthy after Biden wins.

Hugh looking a tad like Fred Gwynne

Why can’t anyone make an uplifting movie

HBO our family was a long-time subscriber but had to cancel due to the pandemic + my stage 4 stomach cancer treatments causing financial impacts. We have xfinity (expensive!). We miss ur programming (billmaher!). This new series sounds amazing. Can u help please?

Hard pass

Is Nicole Kidman a vampire? Why doesn’t she age? Must be a vampire.

good

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