DESTROYER (15)
D: Karyn Kusama
Annapurna/30 West/Automatik (Fred Berger, Phil Hay & Matt
Manfredi)
USA 🇺🇸 2018
123 mins
Drama/Crime
W: Phil Hay & Matt Manfredi
DP: Julie Kirkwood
Ed: Plummy Tucker
Mus: Theodore Shapiro
Nicole Kidman (Erin Bell), Toby Kebbell (Silas),
Tatiana Maslany (Petra), Scoot McNairy (Ethan), Bradley Whitford (DiFranco), Sebastian Stan (Chris)
Nicole Kidman sheds her usual fine looks to turn up looking
more like Charlize Theron in Monster for this gritty crime drama in which she plays a morally ambiguous police detective who plans revenge for a previous undercover case which went bad whilst
juggling domestic issues involving her daughter and ex-husband.
The film adopts a non-linear narrative which isn't completely
necessary, with backstory that is slowly revealed as the film progresses.
Nicole Kidman delivers a strong performance in the lead role
and was rewarded with a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress (Drama). The rest of the performances are also good, but the pacing is quite turgid due to the non-liner styling and it pretty
much sums up to the same plot seen in Rampart (qv), albeit with a female police officer rather than a male.
6/10