Interesting film about detective Erin Bell's (played by an almost unrecognizable Nicole Kidman) quest for payback, never overcoming an old undercover assignment gone tragically wrong.

I had never heard anything about this film until a couple of days ago, surfing the movie catalog on Amazon Prime Time. I understand the film underperformed in theaters, which is a shame.

Nicole Kidman gives a defining performance as the Devil may care detective Bell. Despite the awesome make up done on one of Hollywood's most attractive actresses, it turns into a distracting factor while watching the film. She looks like an extra from "The Walking Dead", with the extreme make up that was applied on her. It is never mentioned what caused Bell's junkie look; sure, she had booze issues but it's never mentioned whether she took or is taking drugs or if she suffered from some sort of skin disorder.

Only during the flashback scenes about the undercover job do we see Kidman sort of looking ok and even in those scenes she is under heavy make up.

Director Karyn Kusama gives us a bleak look at L. A. You think of series like "Lucifer", where we see a very nice and tidy Los Angeles compared to the one we see in "Destroyer". Her directorial style here is the "the beginning is actually the ending", but I didn't know that until the last couple of scenes.

In a nutshell, I did enjoy "Destroyer". It's not a commercial, crowd pleasing film and I would blame the studio for not giving it enough promotion. Don't expect a fast paced movie, but once "Destroyer" sinks into you it won't let go.

"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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Not quite sure what this film wants to be but it does feel a bit confused. A personal drama about a cop battling her personal demons with a bit of bank heist thriller added to the mix. The narrative is unconventional and also quite boring at times and the character work is limited despite decent actors in the cast. Nicole Kidman fails to impress here, hidden behind a brunette wig and they've smeared some black stuff around her eyes to ugly her up, but it just looks like what it is. Some scenes should never have been included. The heist itself is pretty good and there are some powerful moments, but it's too meandering to work.