Destroyer (4 Stars)

This is the ninth film in the Stuttgart White Nights Festival.

"Destroyer" is a difficult film for me to rate. There's so much about the film that's outstanding, but it also has its weaknesses.

I've never particularly liked Nicole Kidman as an actress, but in this film she's spectacular. In my eyes it's the best film of her career. She's hardly recognisable in the role as the alcoholic Los Angeles police detective Erin Bell. It breaks the usual cliché that it's male detectives who have drink problems. She's a wreck. She's determined to hunt for the man who killed Chris, her partner and lover, 17 years ago, and she breaks all the rules set for her by the police department to get her revenge.

There's a side story that she's struggling to be accepted by her rebellious 16-year-old daughter Shelby, who despises her because she's always drunk. Shelby is Chris's daughter, but Erin didn't find out she was pregnant until after his death.

The story is told in two halves. We see her in the present trying to find the former gang leader, Silas. We also see what happened 17 years ago, when Erin and Chris went undercover in the gang when it was planning a bank robbery. The stories are skilfully interwoven.

But...

The director is unfair to the viewer. The viewer is deliberately misled by the film narrative. The story is told in two timelines, the past and the present. That would be good storytelling, but at the end we realise that the events didn't take place in the order they're shown. That's unfair. I know that it's done this way to spring a plot twist on us, but I think it's cheating.

The second time I watch the film I'll enjoy it more because I know what happens when.

This film will be released in England next week. No American release date has been set yet. I'd like to discuss it with my friends after they've seen it.