“I just wanna do one good thing,” says Nicole Kidman in the first trailer for “Destroyer.” Directed by Karyn Kusama, the crime drama sees the Oscar winner playing Erin Bell, a troubled LAPD detective haunted by her past. As a young cop, Erin went undercover with a gang. Flashbacks hint that the job went horribly awry, and Erin was left forever changed.
Now, after years of hiding out, the gang’s leader has reemerged, and only Erin realizes what’s going on. She’ll have to confront the past — and the gang members who are still alive — to get vengeance.
The trailer shows Erin getting emotional in a tense meeting with her estranged daughter, putting someone in a trunk, and making use of her gun. It’s clear that she’s at risk of spiraling out of control at any moment.
“I’ve been drawn to stories about moral accountability, and the story of Erin elicited extreme and thorny emotions from me,” Kusama told us. “She’s a difficult person who has trouble being honest with herself, and though she sometimes behaves badly, there is also something deeply sympathetic about her. Her journey toward honesty and self-reflection felt both deeply painful and also satisfyingly cathartic to me,” she explained. “As a culture we’re facing a spiritual and moral reckoning with our own history, and the decisions of our past must be acknowledged and addressed in order to move forward. Erin pays a very steep price for her own personal redemption, but I find her story to be a microcosm of the larger moment we’re living in.”
“The Invitation,” “Jennifer’s Body,” and “Girlfight” are among Kusama’s previous features. She’s also directed episodes of series such as “Halt and Catch Fire,” “Billions,” and “The Man in the High Castle.”
Kidman won an Oscar for “The Hours” and scored nods for “Lion,” “Rabbit Hole,” and “Moulin Rouge!” Her upcoming projects include Season 2 of HBO murder mystery “Big Little Lies” — which she also exec produces — and “She Came to Me,” Rebecca Miller’s comedic drama about two intertwining love stories set in the world of contemporary art.
“Destroyer” made its world premiere at Telluride in August. The pic opens December 25 in NY and LA and expands in January. Tatiana Maslany (“Orphan Black”) and Sebastian Stan (“Captain America”) co-star.
