Detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) is forced to reopen old wounds of an undercover assignment that went fatally wrong seventeen years earlier when she receives a dyed bank note in her mail.

Destroyer is a hard bitten detective drama that whilst doing nothing particularly knew does do everything expertly well. Nicole Kidman is virtually unrecognisable as Detective Bell. She is a husk of a human being, hollowed out by seventeen years of pain and guilt. The appearance of the bank note in her mail gives her a chance at redemption and it is one that she go to any length to take.

Using a flashback structure we slowly have the undercover mission that went wrong revealed to us. A much fresher faced Kidman is partnered up with an undercover FBI agent played by Sebastian Stan and as we meet people in the flashbacks we see Bell systematically track them down in the present. Person by person making her way to the ring leader of the crew she infiltrated, Silas (Tony Kebbell). It is a storytelling conceit that constantly keeps us striving to understand what exactly went wrong whilst keeping us appraised of personalities in the past and present.

We also get an insight into Bell’s troubled private life via her ex-husband Ethan (Scoot McNairy) and daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn).

Director Karyn Kusama expertly blends the detective story, family drama and flashback structure with drama and action to make an accomplished film.