Rated: MA 15+
Directed by: Karyn Kusama
Written by: Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi
Produced by: Fred Berger p.g.a. Phil Hay p.g.a. Matt Manfredi p.g.a.
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Tatiana Maslany, Jade Pettyjohn, Scoot Mcnairy, Bradley Whitford, Toby Kebbell and Sebastian Stan.
A watery pair of blue eyes flicker and open, their colour washed out by the blazing sunshine. After what appears to be a night of heavy drinking slept off in the car, hungover and burnt out LAPD detective Erin Bell lumbers along to a crime scene. An anonymous victim lying in a drain bears the markings of a gang affiliation and with a dye stained note on his body. To Bell, this is a warning. Her long time arch nemesis, Silas (Toby Kebbell), is back and Bell will stop at nothing to track him down.
Whether we are introduced to him propped up at some bar or nursing a shotgun on the front porch, we can be pretty sure that a grizzled loner will somehow be redeemed by the end of the film. Things are more complicated when a female takes on this traditionally male role.
While many of the overseas reviewers have hailed Kidman’s role as a bravura performance, an almost equal number have described her character as a ‘demon-haunted’, ‘zombie,’ ‘crypt keeper’s bff,’ and ‘luxuriating in the flames of a personal hell’. At issue is the use of wigs and makeup, with many of the critics claiming the props overwhelmed the role and the Bell’s disintegration could have been more convincingly portrayed through acting. So, with the controversy in full swing, I was very curious to find out which side I would take.
One of the reasons for the differing views, is the way the film crosses genres, with some reading it as a cops and robbers thriller, others perceiving a horror movie slant, while Bell’s relationship with her estranged sixteen year old daughter Shelby (Jade Pettyjohn) lends a dramatic overtone.
Initially, the horror stems from unacknowledged trauma, when Bell as an undercover rookie was forced to watch on while a gang member is bullied into putting a loaded gun to his temple and made to pull the trigger. It is a seminal moment. If a life can be taken away as the mere setup for a joke, the change is profound. The future disappears.
For Bell, the trauma from that earlier life has been deeply etched into her being and any hope for herself abandoned long ago. That is until her fury is reawakened by Silas’s re-emergence. As she pursues her quarry through the fierce sunlight and blinding shadows of L.A’s seedier parts, Bell’s self-imposed mission takes on a more surreal and nightmarish cast, and the feeling is amplified by the parallel timeline that entwines the past and present. It is a montage of sensation, not unlike consciousness, and it creates a sense that we are viewing Bell’s quest through the unforgiving prism of her own interior reality.
Compounding Bell’s desperation, Shelby has been caught in the thrall of a charismatic but treacherous small-time thug, and seems hellbent on obliterating her own future as efficiently as possible. Even if Bell were prepared to forego redemption for her own sake (which she is not), nothing will stop her fighting for her daughter.
In her role as lone vigilante, Bell pulls out all the stops, at times breath-takingly so, and Kidman turns on an equally intense performance. Whether she has taken a step too far into ‘hellmonster’ territory is up to you, but for me a ‘hellmonster’ is exactly what’s needed.