Destroyer a crime drama so grim and grotty it should come with a Hazmat rating

Psssst! Ever wondered what Nicole Kidman would look like if she went without sleep for a week, went without makeup for a month, and lived under a bridge for a year? Well, your dream screen trifecta has finally come in.

Psssst! Ever wondered what Nicole Kidman would look like if she : (a) went without sleep for a week; (b) went without makeup for a month; and (c) lived under a bridge for a year?

Well, your dream screen trifecta has finally come in, and better still, Destroyer will give you two long hours to contemplate its star’s anti-makeover from all angles.

DESTROYER (MA15+)

Rating: Two and a half stars (2.5 out of 5)

Director: Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux)

Starring: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Sebastian Stan, Scoot McNairy.

Looks can be deceasing

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Nicole Kidman stars as Erin Bell in Karyn Kusama's Destroyer.

Kidman is a state of top-to-toe decay in this film.

While Kidders has uglied it up previously for fun, profit and (Academy) awards, nothing will prepare you for the state of top-to-toe decay in which she presents herself here.

In what can only be billed as a crime drama so grim and grotty it should come with a Hazmat rating, Kidman plays Erin Bell, a Los Angeles detective who somehow still has a job despite multiple issues with anxiety, alcohol, anger management and personal grooming.

Erin is working a murder case where, in what might just be a cinematic first, the victim is arguably in better shape than the cop hunting for her killer.

What is significant about this case is that Erin has a hunch it may point the way to a shadowy psychopath she has been chasing for the last 17 years.

Silas (Toby Kebbell) is the kind of criminal mastermind that is all madness, all badness, 24/7. One of his favourite pastimes is duping his half-witted henchmen into playing Russian roulette without the promise of a prize at the end.

Destroyer is a crime drama so grim and grotty it should come with a Hazmat rating.

Nicole Kidman stars as Erin Bell in Karyn Kusama's DESTROYER, an Annapurna Pictures release. Credit: Sabrina Lantos / Annapurna Pictures

A series of flashbacks inelegantly staggered across Destroyer’s time frame fill us in on the finer details of Erin’s beef with Silas.

Once upon a time, when she still had a conventional complexion and a passable hairdo, the younger Erin worked his first undercover assignment infiltrating Silas’ armed-robbery operations.

She had a partner back then, too. A cool, good-looking fella named Chris (Sebastian Stan). What became of him, well, it ain’t pretty. But neither is Destroyer.

The whole experience is one slo-mo slap to your face, while Kidman maintains the most cadaverous countenance ever seen in a movie without zombies or vampires.

Originally published as Destroyer a crime drama so grim and grotty it should come with a Hazmat rating