There’s been a bit of “you’ve never seen Nicole Kidman like this” hype around this gritty drama so I went in with pretty high expectations and sadly they were not met.
Destroyer isn’t bad but it’s only about 3 stars good for me. Kidman’s performance does live up to the hype - she’s excellent - but unfortunately it hasn’t made for an excellent film in my view.
Kidman is hard-drinking and hard-living detective Erin Bell. She’s clearly been through a lot in both her professional and personal life but a case presents itself and it’s clear there’s connections to her past. As always, there shall be no spoilers here but it’s true to say that I didn’t predict either the trajectory or ending of the story.
The West Wing fans will enjoy Bradley Whitford in his small role. He’s a silver fox these days, y’all. *swoon*
The film flips back and forth in time which I’m personally not a big fan of however my bigger objection is to the length. The two hours this runs for feel long and arduous and it would hugely benefit from having 20 minutes trimmed.
The friend I saw this with agreed with me, for what it’s worth. In fact, I think she liked it even less than me. She described it as more stevia than sugar and whilst I would never in a million years have put it quite like that, I knew exactly what she meant. There’s something about it that’s just a bit off.
Here’s a 3.5 star review from Fairfax and a 3.5 star review from News Ltd if you want to read more. They both contain lots more on the plot though, spoilers to some degree.
Destroyer is rated MA15+ and in cinemas now. Trailer here.