Destroyer

When it comes Oscar time next year, I want to nominate … well, I just tried to look it up, but it seems the IMDb has moved the crew part of the Full Cast and Crew to the paid IMDb Pro section, so I don’t know who did the make-up. But he or she managed to make Nicole Kidman, one of the prettiest women I know of, into a face that looked like twenty miles of rough dirt road. And it is utterly convincing.

She plays a cop who is a total burn-out case. When she shows up at a murder scene, everyone groans and wishes she would just go away. She is drunk (or seems so, but things are not always what they seem), almost staggering, as she pulls rank and examines the body. Her story is that ten years ago she went undercover with a really scary gang dealing drugs. Things went disastrously wrong, and we learn about that bit by bit.

The pacing is too slow, with too many close-up shots that linger on her half dead face. And that’s a shame because there is a really neat twist ending that I can’t tell you about. It’s worth seeing for that alone. Trust me, things really are not what you are imagining they are.

There is a small supporting role for Tatiana Maslany, who was so amazing in eight simultaneous roles in the TV show Orphan Black. Most of her scenes are very brutal except for an extended one with Kidman that is well-played by both.