"Destroyer" seems to have had mixed reviews, but it is really one of the most gripping watches I've seen in 2019.
The plot is both familiar (think "The Departed" mixed with "Hell or High Water") but at the same time intricate. Nicole Kidman plays police detective Erin Bell who's in a bad place. She looks to be on her last legs through drink and drugs, but she is being propped up in her post by an understanding boss and a tolerant partner (who spends most of his time leaving "Where the hell are you?" voicemails).
Erin is in pursuit of a truly evil man - Silas (Toby Kebbell) - who is back after a long absence. Erin and Silas have a past that is only unfolded as the film evolves. (To say more would ruin what is an outstandingly well-constructed screenplay). Aside from the "day job", what Erin also has to contend with her truly wayward 16 year old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn).
It's an astonishing performance. Nicole Kidman is simply extraordinary in this role. As ably demonstrated recently in the excellent "Big Little Lies", Kidman at 52 years old, is still utterly gorgeous in the flesh. But In the same way that Charlize Theron "uglied up" for "Monster", so Kidman here is almost unregonizable as the police officer on the edge. Apparantly she could barely walk due to a bout of the flu during the final scenes of the film, so the acting here required not a huge amount of acting! But it's a terrific performance and one that I think justly deserves a Best Actress Oscar nomination. I'd be genuinely disappointed if she didn't get one for this.
Standout performances also come from Sebastian Stan as Erin's former squeeze Chris and Jade Pettyjohn as young Shelby. Great to also see Bradley Whitford ("West Wing") in a cameo as a truly smug and obnoxious money launderer.
The screenplay by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (who wrote the "Ride Along" franchaise) is also artfully done, to the extent that again I would personally nominate it for an Oscar. It's true, that the good cop / bad cop movie and the bank heist movie have been done countless times before, such that it feels immediately familiar. And the tone of the film (supported by an effectively stress-inducing music score by Theodore Shapiro) reminded me of "You Were Never Really Here". But here the continuous and dizzying flashing between timelines kept me on my toes and I for one didn't see the stunning twist in the tale coming at all.
Credit must also go to director Karyn Kusama, who is new to me, who keeps the action moving at a slick pace such that I wasn't for one second bored.
Perhaps if there's a criticism here it's that we don't get to see enough of the characterisations fleshed out. This is particularly true of the villain of the piece, Silas, who is painted sufficiently well as being on-the-edge and unhinged, but not unrepentantly "shoot a granny in the face" evil.
I missed this at the cinema, so it took a plane journey to catch up on it. It's a heady mix of criminality, justice, revenge and atonement, and it made the journey just fly by. Highly recommended.
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