Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Destroyer Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman April 30, 2019

Destroyer may strike some as having been designed expressly to deliver an Academy Award nomination to Nicole Kidman, since it follows in the time honored tradition of “de-glamming” a major film icon, dirtying her up on the outside while also offering a character who has plenty of internal warts (so to speak) as well. While Kidman didn’t capture an Oscar nod for whatever reason (the thinking may have been she already enough of those), Destroyer undeniably offers Kidman a really interesting role, that of a cop on a hunt for vengeance who may have more than a few skeletons in her closet. Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) is a wreck — that much is obvious from her rough appearance. But it also quickly becomes clear that Erin is suffering from some kind of emotional dysfunction as well, with a personal life in shambles and a relationship with a daughter named Jade (Shelby Pettyjohn) that could also arguably use a bit (a lot?) of improvement. Bell is the very model of a modern burnt out cop, with what amounts to a generous dose of post traumatic stress disorder stemming from a long ago assignment whose history is doled out interstitially here after a “current day” event appears to be linked to an undercover operation Bell was assigned to decades earlier.

While there are structural artifices at play in Destroyer, including some “pretzel logic” in terms of various timeframes ping ponging off of each other, in some ways Bell’s “present day” adventures play kind of weirdly close to those of Liam Neeson’s character of Bryan Mills in Taken, with Bell sort of magically having a “particular set of skills” that allow her to maraud through a series of interchanges with a bunch of villainous types (though kind of ironically, here it’s Bell who’s doing the kidnapping). She’s on the hunt for a guy named Silas Howe (Toby Kebbell), who has something to do with a now ancient FBI sting involving Bell and a guy named Chris (Sebastian Stan).

The film actually begins with what seems to be a badly hungover Bell visiting the site of a John Doe murder, where police from another jurisdiction obviously don’t want her around — until she says she knows who did it, as she stares with concern at a one hundred dollar bill badly stained by purple die. A couple of other clues are dangled in front of the audience, including the fact that the victim has a distinctive tattoo on his neck which Bell seems to have also had at one point, but has had removed (there are scars). When Bell gets a similarly died bill in her precinct mail, it seems like a case of screenwriting convenience — except there’s actually some deliberate misdirection going on which is only clarified in the film’s endgame.

Destroyer provides two unfolding timelines, one in the “present day”, and another documenting the long ago undercover efforts of Bell and Chris. The “past history” ultimately details the efforts of the gang Bell and Chris have infiltrated to pull off a heist, and that of course turns out to be the source of the dyed money. But there are a whole host of other subplots that are rather ingeniously stuffed into this enterprise, and it’s to the credit of screenwriters Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi that they manage to pull of a rather bracing set of “reveals” that play surprisingly realistically, especially given the kind of hyerpbolic undertone of much of the film. Without posting any outright spoilers, suffice it to say that Bell’s moral shades of gray are even “shadier” than might first be suspected, and the story offers a rather potent portrait of a woman pushed to almost feral extremes in a perhaps misguided quest for vengeance.

This is certainly a tour de force for Kidman, who has previously gone the “de-glam” route in such outings as The Hours (getting not just an Oscar nod in that instance, but an actual Academy Award), but she’s a visceral force of nature in Destroyer, despite the fact that Bell is a walking shambles in “present time”. Kidman does a really creditable job detailing the difference in Bell’s character between the two time periods, but she also knits the character into an organic whole by suggesting that even the fresh faced undercover cop might have had a somewhat uncertain moral compass. Destroyer may strike some as arguably going for too much of a “The Usual Suspects” route in its closing moments, offering a parade of revelations that seek to explain a number of dangling plot points, and there’s also a bit of what what I might term a “ The Sea of Trees pseudo-spirituality” in some closing images, but those passing qualms aside, this is a really gritty story told with considerable flair and some amazing performances.

Destroyer Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Destroyer is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. While yet again the IMDb is virtually dataless with regard to the technical aspects of this shoot, I found this interesting interview with cinematographer Julie Kirkman where she references Arri Alexa Minis, and I'm assuming things were finished at a 2K DI. As can probably be made out in at least some of the screenshots accompanying this review, this has been tweaked to resemble traditional film, with a gritty appearance that perfectly matches some of the story elements and moral turpitude on display. Kind of ironically, the "present day" material, where Bell is literally one of the walking wounded, is often incredibly bright and sunny, to the point that some scenes look boosted, with a somewhat blanched palette (see screenshot 4). (Another interview with Kirkman I found had her overtly stating, "I planned to go for extreme blown out highlights.") The "past" moments, where Bell is ostensibly happier, are often quite dark and drab looking, and a lot of the interior scenes don't offer a wealth of detail, let alone shadow detail. Those moments, combined with others which are ironically better lit but kind of gauzy due to the light, can give selected moments of the film a fairly hazy appearance.

Destroyer Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Destroyer offers a nicely energetic DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that derives a lot of immersion from a really interesting score by Theodore Shapiro which emphasizes weird string techniques (I was reminded of the Bartok String Quartets), while also adding what sounded to me like electronic swells, often in lower registers. That, combined with some really forceful ambient environmental sounds in some urban settings, offer consistent surround activity. There are some fun panning effects (an early moment has a huge semi passing on an overpass while Bell sits in a car underneath), and there are some intermittent bursts of LFE courtesy of some more traditional action adventure elements. Dialogue is always rendered cleanly and clearly throughout on this very expressive and enjoyable track.

Destroyer Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary with Director Karyn Kusama


• Commentary with the Writers Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi


• Breakdown of an Anti-Hero: The Making of Destroyer (1080p; 19:06) offers some good interviews and behind the scenes footage.


• Gallery (1080p; 1:05) offers either an Auto Advance or a Manual Advance option. The timing is for the Auto Advance option.


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:15)

Destroyer Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Destroyer is a fantastic character study, and if it arguably tries a bit too hard to offer a few "twists" with regard to its main character, that will probably strike a lot of fans as a small price to pay for such an intriguing story. Kidman is really an amazing presence in this film, and it's fun to see her go "full Bryan Mills" on some bad guy (and gal) types. Technical merits are solid, and Destroyer comes Recommended.