YOU CAN’T RUN FROM YOURSELF.

LAPD detective Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) receives a stained $100 bill that proves to her that a gang leader is still active; 16 years earlier she was part of his crew, working undercover. As Karyn Kusama takes us back and forth between Bell’s current situation and the events that changed her life in more ways than one, the details of this story may not come across as seamlessly connected. But it is nonetheless a brutal and exciting thriller that paints an honest, harsh and moving portrait of a woman trying, clumsily but doggedly, to see justice done. Kidman never holds back and it’s good to see a film that achieves more than just wallowing in misery.

2018-U.S. 123 min. Color. Widescreen. Produced by Fred Berger, Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi. Directed by Karyn Kusama. Screenplay: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi. Cast: Nicole Kidman (Erin Bell), Toby Kebbell (Silas Howe), Tatiana Maslany (Petra), Scoot McNairy, Bradley Whitford, Sebastian Stan.

Last word: “Everyone arrived on set really wanting to be there, and [Kidman] was the first spark of making all of this happen in that she really wanted the role. She read it and said, ‘This frightens me, this challenges me, this character gets under my skin. I need to understand her better.’ It was just great to have that kind of open-ended conversation with an actor where she just wanted to talk about her feelings about this character. In doing so, she also said, ‘If I were to play this role, I couldn’t look like the Nicole Kidman that people are accustomed to seeing because that isn’t what I bring to Erin Bell.’ In real life, she’s a startlingly statuesque, porcelain-skinned, true beauty.” (Kusama, Pop Matters)