Destroyer  ★★★½

DIRECTOR Karyn Kusama provides Nicole Kidman with one of her best roles as the damaged cop in Destroyer.

It’s the type of dark, meaty role that in the past may have been filled by the likes of Al Pacino (Criuising), James Woods (Cop) or Harvey Keitel (Bad Lieutenant).

If you are looking for an inspirational female role-model from your cinema-going, forget about this one.

But if an actress tackling a tough, gritty and desperately unlikable character interests you then Kidman and Kusama deliver in spades with Erin Bell.

The film is presented with almost equal attention in two different time-frames seperated by about seven years.

We start in the present with police at the scene of a murder victim discovery on an isolated floodway on the outskirts of the city.

Bell arrives looking like she spends most nights medicated in her car. I’ve seen healthier-looking zombie extras on The Walking Dead.

It’s also obvious that her presence isn’t appreciated by her colleagues; she’s an outcast struggling to survive, let alone function as a police detective.

What happened to this her? Any why does she take a cursory look at the body and casually walk away saying she knows who the killer was?

We then flashback to the younger version of Bell working undercover with her male partner Chris, played by Sebastian Stan.

The pair are posing as petty criminals willing to take a step up to violence as part of a gang of bank robbers led by the enigmatic and mysterious Silas (Toby Kebbell in one of his better supporting roles).

We move between the two critical stages of Bell’s life and career, achieveing a growing understanding of the events and motivations that lead to intense pressure and her current state.

Bell is also dealing with a rebellious daughter, played convincingly by Jade Pettyjohn, who is resentful that her mother has been emotionally hard and distant for much of their relationship.

Kusama chooses a flat colour palette and fixed camera angles for much of the film that is set in mostly run-down areas of a sun-parched Los Angeles.

Juxtaposed with the sudden, frenetic action scenes, she presents a crime drama similar in look and approach to the best examples from the late ’70s and early 80s.

The script, by the writing team of Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi, also grounds the film in this period, exploring the kind of realism and fatalism of films like Taxi Driver and Serpico.

While it’s not in the same class as those classics, Destroyer is a significant progression in style and substance from Kusama’s previous films like The Invitation, Jennifer’s Body and Girlfight, which are all entertaining but don’t deliver the same gut punches.

As for Kidman, still maligned in some critical quarters, she continues to steadily improve (Stoker, Strangerland, The Killing of a Scared Deer, television’s Big Little Lies) amid the occasional mis-steps (Aquaman, Grace of Monaco).

Destroyer is possibly her best performance yet but, sadly, it’s being over-looked because the movie is too dark and heavy for potential audiences.

That’s a shame because it’s a a solid, intriguing drama.