Diksha Sundriyal
In Netflix’s ‘The Perfect Couple,’ a lavish wedding at the waterfront mansion of Summerland turns into chaos when the maid of honor is killed on the night of the rehearsal dinner. This puts a wrench in the wedding and causes a host of troubles for the family, led by the matriarch, Greer Winbury. As each and every member of the Winbury family comes under scrutiny, their shocking secrets are exposed, and a crack appears in their relationships. Every Winbury comes with their own follies and predilections, making them an interesting bunch, to say the least. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Fictional Winbury Family Has Nantucket Influence
‘The Perfect Wedding’ is based on the eponymous fiction novel by Elin Hilderbrand, who is known for employing Nantucket as the primary location for her stories. She has authored more than 25 novels, and almost all of them have the island as their setting. Hilderbrand’s choice of location is influenced by her own life, having spent decades living in Nantucket. She has noted her love for the place and her intimate familiarity with it as the reason behind the recurring presence of the place in her stories. However, its influence extends beyond simply being the backdrop and affects the characters as well.
When creating the fictional Winbury family, Hilderbrand infused them with the customs and inflections of Nantucket. From the way they dress to the way they speak to the food they prefer, the island had a huge impact on the way they were brought alive on paper. Director Susanne Bier took this influence further when the time came to bring the story to the screen. Bier confessed that initially, she had some reservations about the story because she felt very unfamiliar with “this Nantucket kind of wealth.” It took some convincing on the part of the producers to give her the confidence to bring about a convincing portrayal of the family.
To prepare herself for the task, Bier decided to read up on all things Nantucket. She kept herself up to date with the things going on in the locale and even tried to find any murder cases there, but discovered that the island’s past has been fairly clean when it comes to that. In addition to this, Bier spent some time on the island to take in the culture so that she had a better sense of what the family would feel like on the screen. She revealed that she used to spend a lot of time noticing people, from their dressing sense to the accessories they carried to the way they carried themselves. She translated all of this into her rendition of Hilderbrand’s story.
The Show’s Creators Wanted to Highlight the Complex Nature of the Winburys
Considering that it is a murder mystery in the context of a very rich family, the show’s creators knew that they didn’t necessarily have to lean into making the Winburys likable. In fact, the more complicated and flawed they were, the more it would feed into the suspicion and make the investigation even more interesting. Bier revealed that apart from the entitlement and the snobbishness of the Winburys, they also focused on presenting all sides, good or bad, which would confuse the viewers just as much as they would confuse Amelia, who serves as our entry point into the story. The contrast that Amelia provides to the Winburys is also supposed to work against them because as she starts to suspect them, so does the audience.
Another thing that Bier was conscious of while making the show was to bring the “insular” nature of the island into the family. She wanted them to feel tight-knit, but not necessarily in a good way. She wanted the mix of self-affirmation and delusion that there is nothing wrong with the way they live and handle their relationships and problems to be a driving point for the family. Their, particularly Greer’s, obsession with being dressed right and having a clean public image also feeds into their dynamics as well as into the way the events eventually turn out. In hindsight, it becomes clear that all of their problems stem from their own actions, and as a family, they are stuck in the devices of their own making.
Read More: Is Dakota Fanning Pregnant for Real in The Perfect Couple?
