In Hulu's new adaption of Sally Rooney's 2017 novel "Conversations with Friends," one look on actress Alison Oliver's face is worth many flashing paragraphs of Rooney's kaleidoscopic prose.
And it's a good thing, too. Because as Hulu attempts to transform Rooney's word-drunk novel into 12 half-hour episodes of streaming television, Oliver and her young, expressive face have a lot of heavy lifting to do.
Cast just after graduating from the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art in Dublin, Oliver plays Frances, a student at Trinity College who becomes part of a complicated four-way relationship involving Frances' former girlfriend and current best friend Bobbi (Sasha Lane, "American Honey"), and a sophisticated, arty older couple — a writer and photographer named Melissa (Jemima Kirke of "Girls"), and her actor-husband, Nick (Joe Alwyn, "The Souvenir: Part II").
