Nicole Kidman has built a fine career since her first big role in Days of Thunder where she backed up Tom Cruise. She then went on to win over audiences in films like Far and Away, Eyes Wide Shut, Birthday Girl, Cold Mountain, Lion, Rabbit hole, and Moulin Rouge. She even won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Leading Role for The Hours in 2002, a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in TV’s “Big Little Lies” in 2017, a Golden Globe for Best Actress for Moulin Rouge! in 2001 and another Golden Globe for Best Actress for To Die For in 1995.
In all she has been nominated for an amazing amount of awards numbering 194 and amassing 94 wins. I’m happy to say that she took SEFCA’s (Southeastern Film Critics Association) Best Actress Award for To Die For (1996) and The Hours (2002) an organization for which I am a member.
Credit: Annapurna Pictures
That said, she’s now been nominated for a Golden Globe Best Actress Award for her amazing performance in the 2018 film Destroyer. With all these accolades she must be head and shoulders above most A-list actors in the world. Having followed her career as a writer, most of her stand out performances have been memorable as with this newest release of Destroyer. She makes her role of undercover detective Erin Bell cringing, self-deprecating and intense. You’ll not have seen any film by her where she turns into this hunting animal that’s so aggressive it’s chilling.
Credit: Sabrina Lantos / Annapurna Pictures
An undercover cop, Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) overhears a call on the radio of a crime scene near her. In her car where she parked the night before she shakes off her groggy state and drives to the scene. The two officers in charge try to make her understand that she’s not needed there, but as she leaves mentions to them that she thinks she knows who killed the guy. So begins a cat and mouse search for the killer putting herself in extreme danger and unearthing the demons of her past.
Director Karyn Kusama does a fine job of laying out the plot, developing her characters and filming the gritty story on sets where the actors make the movie work. Karyn knows her stuff as shown in movies like Girlfight, AEon Flux and Jennifer’s Body. She turns Kidman into a determined investigator who without regard for her own life dives head on into a crime with abandon. Surrounding Kidman with very good support actors, Karyn blasts her film into an incredible piece of work.
Speaking of Kidman in Destroyer, she puts her character at risk at nearly every turn and makes the film an excellent action drama. Kidman has spunk and shows she can be up there with the best including the likes of Charlize Theron, Kate Beckinsale and Mila Jovovich to name a few aggressive female actors. I like Kidman here as I did when she took on the role Sofia in Birthday Girl. In that film as a Russian mail-order-bride she takes a beating at the hands of her Russian cousins. I could name others like Strangerland a disturbing film that puts her character under suspicion of two missing teenagers and has to face the ire of her townspeople. If she wins the Golden Globe award for her acting in Destroyer it is well deserved. Hopefully she doesn’t get shut out of a nomination for an Oscar with so many worthy recipients this year.
Destroyer has been rated R by the MPAA for language throughout, violence, some sexual content and brief drug use. Included in the violence are some brutal scenes that are cringing. The make-up department must have had to work overtime making Kidman look so emaciated and run down in many scenes.
FINAL ANALYSIS: A very good crime action film for lovers of the genre. (4 out of 5 Stars)
Additional Film Information:
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Tatiana Maslany, Sebastian Stan, Scoot McNairy, Bradley Whitford, Toby Huss, James Jordan, Beau Knapp.
Directed by: Karyn Kusama
Genre: Action, Crime, Drama
MPAA Rating: R for language throughout, violence, some sexual content and brief drug use
Running Time: 2 hrs.
Opening Date: December 25, 2018
Distributed by: Annapurna Pictures
Released in: Standard
Writer, critic, film editor John Delia, Sr. has been on all sides of the movie business from publications to film making. He has worked as a film critic with ACED Magazine for more than 20 years and other publications for a total of 40 years. He earned a Bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Florida. John is a member of the Southeastern Film Critics Association and Critics Association of Central Florida Send John a message at jdelia@acedmagazine.com
