User reviews

Nicole Kidman does in fact deliver an accomplished performance in Destroyer. Yes, the movie tends to move somewhat slowly and would be misrepresented as an action/adventure feature. But Kidman triumphantly carries the film with a masterful portrayal of a character that is strikingly different than expected, and in the process dramatically expands and enhances her reputation as an actress.

Nicole Kidman is the epicenter of this bleak crime thriller in which a veteran LAPD officer confronts her long-ago past in which she was part of an undercover operation aimed at a vicious gang of bank robbers. Here, she gives one of her best performances ever.

Kidman's disheveled look in this film is meant to reflect years of anguish and burn-out, in short the psychological toll of her job. An absolutely desolute view of Los Angeles is seen through her exhausted, but still enraged eyes. Another plot layer deals with her challenging relationship with her teenage daughter who has gone astray. Those around Kidman's character rarely see things her way, but that's because she has a past of her own to resolve.

Recommended as slow-burn material that gradually earns one's respect, even though I think a better editor would have made this a tighter film.

Too many back and forth flash-backs throughout the entire 121 min slowly paced convoluted plot does not make for a good film - regardless of Kidman's decent (not great) performance.

Director Karyn Kusama and writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi failed to accomplish their vision in creating a captivating film by convoluting simplicity with cliched typical underwhelming directing and writing. Had this films timeline been played out normally, it may have been somewhat entertaining - although the focus was too much on Kidman's character more than anything else. Chopping it with back and forth scenes added nothing more than an annoyance, as there was very little surprise or impact that wasn't already predictable, and the finale was very underwhelming.

The camera work/cinematography was decent, although I would've rather seen less slow-mo and long fixated shots on irrelevant scenes. Had this film's pace been picked up substantially, and edited down to about 90 mins by cutting the convoluted and unnecessary portions out (e.g. skateboarders, walking in the snow, etc), I would have enjoyed it, instead of being left unsatisfied.

A shame the producers focused more on bogus reviews instead of investing in more experienced director/writers equal to Kidman's level. You won't get an A-grade film by hiring A-list actors with B-grade TV-experienced writers and directors.

Sadly it's only a very generous 5/10 from me, and all of that goes to the actors and score which were the only aspects that were stand-out/decent.

Greetings again from the darkness. The rogue/burned-out cop obsessed with an old case or particular criminal nemesis is something we have seen many times before. Ordinarily there would be no reason to seek out yet another movie on the subject; however, this time the reason is obvious ... Nicole Kidman.

Ms. Kidman, an Oscar winner for THE HOURS (2002), is an excellent actress and has had a wonderful career, but this is something altogether different for her. She plays LAPD Detective Erin Bell, a worn-down, emotionally shattered shell of the idealistic cop who, 17 years earlier, was part of an undercover operation that went tragically and violently wrong. Director Karyn Kusama (JENNIFER'S BODY, 2009) bounces back and forth on the timelines - sometimes we are viewing Erin's undercover work with her partner Chris (Sebastian Stan), and others we get the haggard Erin of present day. The contrast is stark.

The ghost of case past has returned, and we witness what has haunted her these many years. Past decisions and actions have rotted her spirit, while alcohol has since destroyed her body. She is a wreck - physically and emotionally, and her reputation within the force is shot. It wouldn't be totally accurate to describe her as self-destructive since she has already destructed. The only thing keeping her going is booze and a desire for revenge.

Flashbacks take us through her early work with the crime gang led by Silas (Toby Kebbell), a master of psychological manipulation (think Charles Manson). We also see Erin's too-close connection to partner Chris, and a terrific bank heist scene explains how things went down. Now it's 17 years later, and Silas has resurfaced. Erin wonders why. We also see Erin's feeble attempts to be a mother to her 16 year old daughter (do the math) Shelby, played by Jade Pettyjohn. The two have only a sliver of a relationship as Shelby lives with Erin's ex Ethan (the eternally underutilized Scoot McNairy).

Other support work is provided by Tatiana Maslany as one of Silas' gang, and Bradley Whitford as a scummy defense attorney. Erin has a sequence with the latter that emphasizes just how alone she is. When asked where her partner is, we realize she has no partner with her and no back-up on the way ... she is a lonely, desperate, rogue cop with a murky plan and a head clouded by booze.

Writing partners Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi (known for CLASH OF THE TITANS and RIDE ALONG) deliver very few surprises with the script, leaving the burden on Ms. Kidman to keep us interested. And despite her character's train wreck of a life, the performance is quite something to behold ... her look, her gait, and even her whispered voice - all point to a woman hanging on by a thread and lacking basic daily energy to show any signs of hope. Director Kusama adds texture by showing many non-touristy areas of Los Angeles, and filming the two timelines in such a way that the structure works - although the Erin in shambles is far more intriguing than the younger one. On a separate note, there should be a special Oscar for the make-up team that managed to make the usually glamorous Ms. Kidman look realistically shattered.

It looks like some people have no other leisure activity as name-bashing... Destroyer is a fine movie about dirty cops with great acting and some emotional depth. Kidman's performance is excellent: so if you just want some car-crashings and gunfights avoid Destroyer and watch Fast & Furios Part XXX instead, but in the case you want to see some good ol' storytelling, watch.

In a career spanning nineteen years, the output of director Karyn Kusama has been chequered, to say the least, with her oeuvre ranging from the excellent (Girlfight (2000), The Invitation (2015)) to the average (Jennifer's Body (2009), her section of the horror anthology XX (2017)) to the unwatchable (Æon Flux (2005)). With Destroyer, she once again teams with writers Phil Hay (to whom she is married) and Matt Manfredi, having previously worked with the duo on Æon Flux and The Invitation. Partly a film noir along the lines of The Killers (1946) or The Asphalt Jungle (1950); partly an anti-hero narrative depicting someone taking the law into their own hands, à la Dirty Harry (1971) or Death Wish (1974); and partly a heist movie borrowing more than liberally from Michael Mann's Heat (1995), Destroyer is an unashamedly pulpy genre piece, confrontationally ugly and unapologetically nihilistic, with crippling emotional trauma the protagonist's most salient characteristic.

Of course, a damaged cop determined to settle one last score isn't exactly an original concept, and Destroyer never strays too far from the generic tropes seen in films such as The New Centurions (1972), To Live and Die in L.A. (1985), and Rampart (2011), or on TV shows such as Miami Vice (1984) and The Shield (2002). However, what it does bring to the table is that the archetypal "he" of such narratives is here a "she", with Kusama relying heavily on Nicole Kidman's startling warts-and-all performance to do most of the heavy lifting. Although the film does seem to be under the impression that it offers some portentous revelation about the nature of revenge and psychological torment, approaching every scene with an air of self-seriousness that can become grating, there are undeniably individual moments of great brilliance. And then there's that lead performance.

Telling the story of burnt-out and psychologically damaged LAPD homicide detective Erin Bell (Kidman), the film follows her efforts to find Silas (Toby Kebbell), the former leader of a bank robbery crew who is possibly back in LA. At the same time, she is trying to deal with her rebellious daughter, Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn). Running concurrently to this, the film reveals via a series of flashbacks that 17 years prior, Bell and her then partner, Chris (Sebastian Stan), were given an undercover assignment to bust Silas and his crew. Posing as a couple, they successfully infiltrated the group, but, somewhere along the line, they fell in love for real, with subsequent events resulting in the damaged person Bell has become.

Although Kusama doesn't explicitly foreground it, gender politics are an important aspect of the film. Much has been made of Kidman's physical transformation, although both Kusama and Kidman have argued that her appearance is not what the film is about, nor should it be critics' focus. Still though, we're not quite at a point where a woman altering her appearance for a role is unremarkable (when women do it, it's "brave"; when men do it, it's "acting"), and like Charlize Theron in Monster (2003), Kidman's commitment to the part can only be applauded. In terms of the type of character she's playing, much as did Caoilfhionn Dunne in little-seen Irish film In View (2016), Kidman commits to Bell as an unlikable, violent, and psychologically ruined character, which in and of itself challenges conventional notions of what a female lead should be. It's undeniably fascinating seeing an actress (and a major one at that) get her teeth into the kind of gritty, embittered, and irredeemable character we usually see a man play, especially insofar as the film resists the urge to soften Bell or provide her with a clear road to redemption. In this sense, she has a lot in common with LT (Harvey Keitel) in Bad Lieutenant (1992); much of what she does has just as good a chance of dragging her down further to hell as it does of lifting her up. But she's beyond caring about herself, concerned only with busting (and preferably killing) Silas. Of course, she's also a mother, and like so many male archetypes, she has not been there for her child. This aspect of her character in particular, compels the audience to ask questions of itself regarding how men and women are perceived on screen - is a woman neglecting a child more forgivable than a man doing so, or less; do we simply expect women to automatically be good mothers in ways we never consider in relation to men as fathers? What do our presuppositions about motherhood on screen say about us as individuals and as a society?

Kidman's commitment to the role of Bell results in a chameleonic performance that carries most of the film's weight. Never afraid to take risks (see Dogville (2003), Birth (2004), Rabbit Hole (2010), The Paperboy (2012), Strangerland (2015)), Kidman completely immerses herself within Bell (who is both the destroyer of the title, and the destroyed). With Bell appearing in literally every scene, there's a sense of authenticity in Kidman's performance, almost as if this were a documentary, and Bell was a real person. It's haunting, disturbing, and heartbreaking all at once. Of course, Bill Corso's makeup design, Barbara Lorenz's hair styling, and, to a lesser extent, Audrey Fisher's costume design all play their part in turning Kidman into this broken shell. The flashback structure is also important vis-à-vis the performance, as Kidman plays Bell very differently in these scenes - her hair is more kempt, her skin smoother (via some subtle de-ageing VFX), her eyes don't droop, her teeth have not yet turned yellow, her gait is more upright, she smiles a couple of times, her voice is more authoritative. In the present, however, her memories have become a cancer which has taken over her body and soul, making her loathe herself, with her anguish subsuming every other facet of her being.

An especially good scene for Kidman (and Pettyjohn) comes towards the end of the film. Bell and Shelby are in a diner, with Bell trying to scare some sense into her daughter, telling her that she has the potential to do something really good with her life. The dialogue then turns to Shelby explaining that when she was asked to talk about a happy memory with her mother, the only thing she could think of was getting lost in a forest in the middle of winter, with Bell carrying Shelby on her back. Shelby says, "I felt safe because I was with you". However, she then immediately turns it around, talking about how she realised something was wrong when she noticed Bell's shoes, which were not hiking boots, realising that they were completely lost, and prompting her to ask, "why are we even out here?" In the flashback, Bell has no answer. In the present, she sheds a couple of tears. But she still has no answer. It's a powerful scene for both actresses, probably the most emotional in the film.

Aesthetically, Kusama's LA is as cynical as you're ever likely to see the city, and obviously owes a sizable debt to Michael Mann. The LA seen in Destroyer is a place of dried out waterways, burnt grass, a glaring sun, endless concrete that looks hot to touch, pollution, corruption, betrayal, graffiti, indiscriminate violence. Cinematographer Julie Kirkwood shoots the present in washed-out anaemic hues, white, beige, brown, lots of sun spots and lens flares, whilst she shots the past with a more saturated palette giving the impression of comfortable warmth rather than stifling heat; a neat metaphorical representation of Bell's mindset.

Of course, there are problems. For the most part, the screenplay is unoriginal and by-the-numbers, and without the power of Kidman's performance, this would have been a straight-to-Blu-ray. Kusama also struggles to break free of the restraints of the genre, which is especially disappointing when you consider the depth of emotion she brought to the otherwise schlocky thriller, The Invitation. The script also seems to be holding something back, teasing the audience with the promise of a big reveal that will transpose Bell's story into something far more universal and esoteric. The first season of True Detective (2014) employed this technique as well, but the difference is that when True Detective pulled the trigger, the reveal was horrifying and worth the wait. In Destroyer, it's hard to be certain if there even was a reveal. The script is certainly aiming for profundity, but it's nowhere near as smart as it thinks it is. Along these lines, Kusama makes some very strange directorial choices. Look at the skateboarders near Bell's car in the opening scene, for example, shot chiaroscuro in extreme slow-motion not once, but twice. What exactly is their significance? Why does Kusama shoot them as if they are offering some kind of life-altering revelation? Are they supposed to act as a voiceless chorus? Are they a metaphor for something?

Destroyer is an average story elevated by the commitment of its lead and some laudable aesthetic choices. It's a cynical and humourless film noir aspiring to something more substantial, but never really accomplishing it. However, its unflinching depiction of devastating emotional trauma, presenting Bell as an open wound, slowly bleeding out, is brilliantly handled. The complete inverse of films which depict characters responding to tragedy with humour, optimism, and determination, Destroyer is brutally nihilistic, giving us a character whose obsession is both keeping her alive and killing her. Although it will be far too lugubrious for some, the film has much to recommend it, not the least of which is that extraordinary performance at its centre.

Slow, boring and overly pretentious. Bland plot that is thinly spread over 2 painful hours. Kidman plodding around like she's soiled her pants isn't great acting - BMX Bandits is a better example of her fare. If you are expecting a pacy action thriller, avoid this. I would've walked out after 30 mins had it not sent me to sleep.

I seriously do not get half of the reviews about this movie about it not having a plot and being slow or about the editing being confusing. "Destroyer" has a very straight forward plot that is not even using cheap twists but rather telling a straight story in a hypnotic trance way and cutting up the timeline to reveal information at the time the director considered it necessary. I loved Karyn Kusamas "The Invitation" and "Destroyer" is a well made movie, no matter how you look at it. Nicole Kidman carries the movie along with the perfect choice of music that sucks you in and watch the plot unfold. This is not an action movie and if you fell for that its not the directors fault. Its a slow drama about a cop that made wrong decisions and tries to right her wrongs when her past with a bank heist gone wrong gets back to her 17 years later.

I know people today have attention spans like moths but seriously... if you can't accept a slow drama for what it is, that says more about you than about the movie. And come on, its 2019... if you are confused by a non-linear timeline and can't wait till the movie clears up the confusion.... thats on you too.

Don't expect this to be a violent revenge movie... its not. Well, at least its not the focus of "Destroyer", although the movie does not hold back when things go down. The drama elements are well played and the ending was quite touching to me. At its core this movie is about the desperate longing for escape from a cold, grey world and its quite obvious from the choice of locations and flats that always give off a bleak, worn down feeling. Music and cinematography make this work perfectly and the editing helped spice up a rather straight forward plot. If you liked Kusamas previous movies... go for it. The key ingredients of haunting atmosphere and slow unveiling of information to the viewer are there although this is a completely different movie than "The invitation". So don't fall for all the moths swarming IMDB. I can't put my finger on all those silly 1star ratings but honestly, it reeks of gender insecurity.

Kidman is 51 and in real life has spent thousands of dollars to look younger as many stars do....

However in this film she is made to look older again........so u have a 51 year old who looks younger than her age but obviously has had loads of work made to look more or less her real age.........the result ??? Wierd !!!.........kidman looks strange almost like a zombie from walking dead.......... Lol.....

It is actually a good story and worth a watch.... Kidmans acting is very good A sunday night slow burn...

Throughout the course of this glacially paced movie I was sitting and thinking to myself. Why was this made? What is the point of this movie? What is the reason behind her actions? Who cares about anything that she is doing?

Yes Kidman's acting is not her usual forte and she portrays but she is hardly a believable cop. She is more of Clint Eastwood wearing a wig and walking like a zombie. Dont get me started on the director, what was she trying to do? Dialogues are disastrous, characters underdeveloped, no plot; pace and flow are non existent. So called "Vision"

The only thing that got Destroyed in this movie was my will to live. Once the 2 hours were up, everyone clapped from relief that it was over. If you are having trouble sleeping, grab a ticket for Desroyer and it will take care of all your problems.

My grade of B- is all for the A-list Nicole Kidman showing us she can act like Charlize Theron in Monster. Destroyer is her film, and she does her best to show us she can be badass L.A. PD detective Erin Bell with years on her face and chips on her shoulder. It's just that the vehicle for this iconic actress is a middling thriller with a jumbled plot about her being an undercover cop, a heist gone wrong, and her annoyingly disaffected daughter, Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn), for whom Erin suffers much.

Kidman is made up to look like a beaten woman, but we do get a few too many flashbacks to show us how beautiful she was as a young brunette cop with a future. Director Karyn Kusama keeps the camera close on Kidman, as if she were begging us not to forget that underneath some neat makeup beats the heart and face of a super movie star.

Beyond Kidman's overpowering presence, some solid performances emerge, for instance Sebastian Stan as Chris, her loving partner; and Beau Knapp, as the boyfriend Jay no one would want for your daughter. Myriad other minor characters reflect the complex world of LA, real and romantic. It's the best city I know for attractive crime and fetching diversity.

Perhaps the awareness of glamorous Kidman as a squinting Dirty Harry is what steers the film and her performance to mediocrity. This observation may condemn Kidman to playing courtesans and rich mothers, but the reality is that she has over the years crafted an enviable persona relying partly on her unusually good looks. Perhaps this rough detective will allow us to forget that image as she plays in more gritty roles that display, without distraction, a world-class actress.

If you are a Kidman fan (I became one after Moulin Rouge), see Destroyer, which just may pleasantly erase your picture of perfection.

A rough looking Kidman would be a huge understatement. Considering how she looked in the flashback scenes to the present setting, the makeup department did an incredible job. And that goes for all the actors appearance from the two time periods. It was very believable that these characters had aged 17 years.

The despair and darker side of Los Angeles is also on display. Red Hot Chili Peppers song 'Under the Bridge' came to mind a few times in scenes.

A little slow, but dives deep into the darkness of a robbery gang and the toll it has taken on Kidman's character. It's definitely not a film that will make you all warm and fuzzy. It gets down and dirty, but ends with what I can only describe as... peace.

Yes it's long and lots of back and forth but if you going to watch a movie then WATCH it and don't complain about how 'complicated' it is. I too lost track of characters but it didn't matter - the movie overall made sense and the bank robbery really hit home. This wasn't as cliched as I expected and totally made sense to have a female lead in the role. My only complaint is that the accent at the start was very 'Nicole' but as you get immersed in the story this became less of a distraction.

I like the way Nicole Kidman chooses her roles lately. Of course, after 35 years of career, 84 roles, and one Academy Award she has less need to prove anything to the world and she can just search for interesting roles, scripts, and film directors and work for fun and for the pleasure of walking unexplored paths. The role in 'Destroyer' seems to be inspired by a similar casting decision made 15 years ago by Charlize Theron with her role in 'Monster' which brought an Academy Award to the beautiful South-African born actress for a role in which terrific make-up disfigured her to the brink of being non-recognizable in a role of a prostitute turned into a serial killer. The film directed by Karyn Kusama also disguises Kidman for part of the time, but the transformation she undergoes is not only physical. Unfortunately, from many points of view 'Destroyer' does not succeed to the same level achieved by the film that made Patty Jenkins famous (fame renewed recently by the new 'Wonder Woman' series).

The story. LAPD detective Erin Bell looks and behaves like a walking dead in the huge and violent city. She actually may have virtually died 16 years ago, when an undercover mission she took part in went wrong. Nothing seems to raise positive feelings in her, not even the relationship with her teenage daughter who prefers to live with her ex-husband, and seems to be making some bad choices in her own life. The only feeling that may motivate her is a desire for revenge which is awaken when a murder that seems to be related to her past happens. There are two story lines in the film and the action oscillates between the two: one is the very unorthodox murder inquiry which Erin is conducting merely in order to find the man behind the destruction of her life, and the flashbacks that will gradually clarify the reasons of her behavior in the events that turned upside down the path of her life.

What I liked. Film director Karyn Kusama succeeds to make clear both the psychological thriller story and the action scenes. Nicole Kidman's acting is convincing, and her make-up in the present day is excellent.

What I liked less. While the script is well-written and we slowly discover the dark past of the character, there is one big flaw that makes the whole story less credible. I believe that even in the crime-ridden LA described in the film, a police officer with such an erratic behavior would be suspended on the spot, not trusted to bear a gun and a badge of law officer. For a film that aspires to be realistic, this is a huge mistake in my opinion. There is also nothing likeable in this film, not even the lead character, certainly not the reality around her. Despite its ambitions the film is hard to watch, maybe also lasts a bit longer than necessary. Getting back again to 'Monster', that film had a social and moral messages. In 'Destroyer' it's just one bad choice in the past that seems to impact everything, the rest is pulp fiction and very grim reality.

Cop revenge drama.

Stars Nicole Kidman as a very heavily made up and unrecognisable world weary LAPD detective. Her life has fallen apart, her colleagues have written her off, and she's tracking down the gang leader of a team of cold-blooded killers, this is from an undercover assignment from her past. When the leader re-emerges many years later, she tracks him down to finally have her revenge.

Many flash-back sequences explain her motivation, she has an estranged family, and her young daughter is becoming the woman she has already become.

Nicole Kidman is a wasted talent, she's never played this type of hard, gritty character before and shouldn't try again as it either didn't work or she was simply poorly directed. There's a totally unnecessary (kind of sexual) scene with Nicole and a villain in bed, she does him a 'favour' that didn't make sense.

The film pretty much end where it starts, which is becoming a tad cliché. The selling point is Nicole Kidman, who I think was wrongly cast.

Struggles to be a 'B' movie.

I'm not sure why there are so many negative reviews, although in reading them they have either not watched the film or simply failed to understand the plot.

It's a good, dark film based around revenge, leading you on a journey to discover to discover who the real villain is.

Please ignore the reviews that state it's confusing (it's really not) or the ones the watched 30 minutes of it (not sure how you can review something you haven't seen?) Watch it and make your own mind up!

Not saying it was a terrible movie but it was definitely not what I expected. Sebastian Stan was barely in the movie. Was kinda expecting to see more of their under cover work and obviously the present time. Not perfect but there is a reason it is already on Hulu.

I was looking forwatd to seeing Nicole play such a different role and ended up walking out. Aside from the totally confusing timeline, the dialog was absurd and it was painful to watch Nicole grapple with the role. She was as unbelievable as an LA cop as Elizabeth Olsen was as an FBI agent in Wind River.

This is a great film. The kind of film they just don't make anymore. Kidman looks unrecognisable and delivers her best performance in a long time! Beautiful photography and a stellar cast make this an overall great watch.

I'm not sure what other people watched, but Destroyer was truly a great piece of film making and Kidman was extraordinary in her role. What came to mind to me was the pace of Heat and feel of Vanilla Sky. Someone stated in a review that from start to finish the movie was ridiculous....wrong. People who live on their cell phone and smoke weed all day aren't able to grasp mature dialogue, convenient flashbacks, slow burners like this with a superb cast ensemble and ending that's intriguing. That's because most of these reviews are by imbeciles who know absolutely nothing about films. Destroyer is top notch drama thriller that I highly to recommend and decent from start to finish. The hate on this film is totally misleading and inaccurate.