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Nicole Kidman goes way-against-type as a bend the rules cop in Destroyer |
Director: Karyn Kusama
Cast: Nicole Kidman (Detective Erin Bell), Sebastian Stan
(Chris), Toby Kebbell (Silas), Tatiana Maslany (Petra), Bradley Whitford
(DiFranco), Jade Pettyjohn (Shelby Bell), Scoot McNairy (Ethan), Toby Huss (Gil
Lawson)

Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) is a detective with a shady past:
an undercover operation with an FBI Agent Chris (Sebastian Stan) which went
wrong 15 years ago. In the present day, the body of a John Doe in Los Angeles
opens up links to this case from the past, causing Erin to start a rogue
investigation into her old undercover days and the gang members she knew back
in the day, specifically her long-held grudge against the psychopathic Silas
(Toby Kebbell).
Destroyer gives us
a familiar story – the cop with the dodgy past, gone to seed, playing against
the rules, tired of life, with a shattered family background, investigating
what could be one last case that has devastating links to the past – but
presents it from a slightly new angle by making the protagonist a woman. This
calls for a terrific performance from Nicole Kidman, who is bashed up, run
down, grouchy, seedy and above all immensely damaged. Kidman’s skill at a
performer is evident in every scene, creating a character who cannot escape from
the burdens of her past, who rejects all help and who is unable to live with
the burden of some sort of unspecified guilt.
Much has been made of Kidman’s roughed up, broken nosed, run
down, alcoholic appearance (the film gets a lot of mileage over close ups of
her ravaged, aged, alcoholic’s hands), but her commitment to the role
transcends any deliberate slumming. She is completely believable as the sort of
rough-and-tumble, rule breaking cop. The make-up also means that the flashback
scenes to a 15-years younger Erin are immediately clear – and give us a clear
indication of how far she has fallen since her more hopeful days.
The film is all about the burden of the past, and the film
constantly flashes back and forth between the present day and Erin’s time
undercover. The film carefully and slowly unveils the exact reasons for Erin’s
guilt and why she has become the person she is, but the burden of it hangs over
every scene in the present and is visible in Kidman’s eyes in every scene. It
brings these themes to life extremely well and weaves an engaging story, even
if everything in it seems like a collection of familiar events from other
films.
In fact that is the film’s biggest weakness, right there. Many
of the events, characters and themes in it feel like they have been plucked
from a range of noir thrillers, thrown up into the air, and then reassembled
into a new patchwork. As impressive as Kidman’s character is, it’s familiar to
us from any number of hard-boiled cops past. The film’s structure – of Kidman
going from contact to contact to get closer to Silas – basically allows for a
series of actors to give performances that, for all their skill, end up feeling
like a random collection of stock characters. None more so than Silas himself
who, despite Toby Kebbell’s best efforts, is a totally forgettable
rent-a-psycho. But then you can say the same for Tatiana Maslany’s aged junkie
and, for all his slimy excellence in the role, Bradley Whitford’s sleazy money
launderer. Other characters feel the same as well, from Kidman’s troubled
teenage daughter, her would-be gangster boyfriend, Erin’s put upon ex-partner
or her wearily understanding partner. These people all seem, to various
degrees, to be stock caricatures rather than characters.
What really makes the film work is the dynamic, often
hand-held, kinetic energy of Karyn Kusama’s direction. Jittery, immediate and
very real, Kusama makes a number of these stock situations – from shoot outs to
roughing up suspects – look at least new and exciting. The two main shoot outs
in the film are extremely excitingly done and make for gripping set pieces,
with the added originality of seeing the main players being women.
But the film itself is just a little too obvious and stock
for it to really stand by itself, for all the quality of the direction and the
excellence of Kidman. There are some moments that work brilliantly with the unexpected
twist of having a woman in the lead role and seeing Kidman throw herself into a
gunfight with a heat-packing disregard for her own safety is all the more
electric for it. But it’s still a little too predictable and familiar – for all
the fact that there is a decent semi-twist towards the end that reveals not all
is as we thought at the start – which perhaps doesn’t make it a film for all
time.
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