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").
In the novel, everyone is always, always talking. Conversations about art and politics and money start in pubs and bookstores and continue at Melissa and Nick's chicly grown-up house or Frances' college-student flat, before spilling into text messages and emails that usually end up being the topic of even more discussion.
Then there are the internal debriefings that make up Frances' narration, which capture the febrile workings of the young-woman brain in all their relentless, vulnerable glory. Because no one can wound a smart young woman as effectively as she can wound herself.
"My ego has always been an issue," Frances says early on in the book. "I knew that intellectual attainment was morally neutral at best, but when bad things happened to me I made myself feel better by thinking about how smart I was."
Ouch.
There is not nearly as much talk in the Hulu version, but as we watch Frances navigate relationships that are all-consuming (and all-confusing) in different ways, Oliver speaks volumes, even as Frances is technically doing nothing more than staring out of a train window.
Fear. Desire. Doubt. Love. More fear. It all ripples across Oliver's expressive, wide-open face. It doesn't entirely make up for the loss of all those witty words Rooney has her characters exchanging over wine, cigarettes and subtext, but it will make you very invested in Frances and her struggles to make sense of an affair that ends up blindsiding her.
The action begins just as Frances and Bobbi are starting a summer of half-hearted working and full-on socializing before their last year in college. The observant, awkward Frances is a writer, and she and the supremely confident Bobbi perform Frances' barbed, feminist poems as a duo at coffeehouses and pubs.
It is at one of these performances that they meet the 30-something Melissa, who invites them to her seaside house for a swim and some lunch. Bobbi flirts with Melissa, who happily flirts back. When the two of them go outside for a smoke, Frances is left to make tentative conversation with the very-handsome Nick.
Much to Frances' surprise, Nick is also quietly observant and slyly funny. At the end of what turns out to be a pivotal day, Bobbi leaves thinking that Nick is not worthy of the fabulous Melissa ("Don't you think it's weird that they're married?," she asks Frances), and Frances leaves thinking Nick is definitely worthy of her attention.
Let the couples' games begin.
Like Hulu's 2020 adaptation of Rooney's "Normal People," which was published in 2018, "Conversations with Friends" was executive produced by Irish filmmaker Lenny Abrahamson ("Room"), who directs many of the episodes with the same warmth and easy intimacy he brought to "Normal People."
The scenes between Frances and Nick are supercharged with emotional energy and a sexual spark that is both tender and steamy. Alwyn captures the protective humor and deep melancholy that make Nick much more interesting and sympathetic than the creepy older-guy cliché, and Kirke does an impressive slow-reveal of the stress fractures beneath Melissa's accomplished poise and polish.
After watching five of the series' 12 episodes, I'm not completely sure if Lane was miscast as Bobbi, or if the scripts by Alice Birch (who also co-wrote the "Normal People" adaptation with Rooney and Mark O'Rowe) have stuck Lane with a watered-down version of Bobbi to play.
Lane has a charisma that really pops, and when she and Oliver are together, you can almost see their best-friend force-field keeping the rest of the world at bay. But the book Bobbi knows where Frances' soft spots are, and she is not above throwing a sharp elbow when she feels threatened. By leaning into the character's boho-exhibitionist side at the expense of her frenemy side, the TV Bobbi isn't quite the agent of chaos she needs to be.
Unlike "Normal People," which devoted almost equal time to both members of the Trinity College couple at its center, "Conversations with Friends" is very Frances-focused. Oliver is a wonder, but all of that wordless watching and staring makes for some dramatic lulls, even in these compact 30-minute episodes. In the book, Frances reserves some of her snarkiest material for the reader, and TV viewers could use a little more of that deliciously dark stuff.
When the various simmering conflicts come to a boil in the fifth installment, "Conversations with Friends" starts to find its edgy groove, so I advise you to hang in there anyway. Friends don't let TV friends give up before the watching gets good.
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"Conversations with Friends" premieres Sunday on Hulu.
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