Most critics like it, and the praise falls in two places. The first is the cast: Witherspoon and Kidman are named again and again, with the wider ensemble credited for giving depth to women who could have been types. The second is Jean-Marc Vallée’s direction, which several reviews say takes a soapy premise about wealthy Monterey mothers judging one another’s parenting and makes it darker and more serious than it needs to be. The murder mystery and the gossipy police interviews are treated as the hook rather than the point; what the reviews respond to is the friendship, the resentment and the violence underneath the money.
The reservations are few and mostly mild. Vulture finds the elliptical structure overused, trading suspense for surprise, and The Times admits the world on show is vacuous even while finding truth in it. The one clear dissent is The Hollywood Reporter, which calls the melodrama annoying, the confrontations contrived and the chorus of gossiping parents too much. Otherwise the spread is narrow.