Film Review of The Destroyer (2019)

Director: Karyn Kusama
Writer: Phil Hay, Matt Manfredi
Cast: Nicole Kidman, Toby Kebbell, Sebastian Stan, Beau Knap, Scoot McNairy, Jade Pettyjohn, Tatiana Maslany

The film, directed by Karyn Kusama, opens with a detective scene Erin Bell (Nicole Kidman) opening her eyes in her car parked under an overpass, while a few feet away some teenagers are playing on a skateboard. The scene then changed when Erin staggered to walk to the crime scene (crime scene) where the body of a man face down on the sidewalk. Blood pooled around his head was shot. In the nape of the neck of the corpse, three tattooed black circles were lined up.

Seeing Erin's arrival, the two colleagues reacted negatively. They obviously did not think Erin was competent enough to handle the case while he looked chaotic and drunk heavily. Erin did not pay attention to the attitude of the two colleagues and asked a few questions. There was no identity to be found on the man's body and was forced to only be called John Doe. The scene then switches to Erin who walks to his office. His colleague confronted him because he made the office the place where Erin received personal papers.

After opening one of the envelopes and finding a piece of paper money with ink stains, Erin, who is now working at LAPD, rushed to meet her colleague at the FBI. Relying on unofficial help from his colleague, Erin received confirmation that there was a match on the identity of the man who sent him the bill. Erin was sure that Silas had indeed reappeared. Erin then continues his investigation, while scene after scene gives a flashback of how young Erin and his partner, Chris (Sebastian Stan) do a disguise mission by joining a gang led by Silas (Toby Kebbell).

Thanks to the connection from Toby (James Jordan), Erin's cousin who was a gang member and did not know Erin's profession as an FBI agent, both were successfully accepted as Silas gang leaders. During his disguise, Erin and Chris later became lovers. When Erin eavesdropped on the conversation between Silas and his lover, Petra (Tatiana Maslany) who planned to rob a bank, Erin immediately told Chris.

From this flashback scene, it is known that Erin contains Chris's child; because of that Erin then persuaded Chris to take a portion of the proceeds of the robbery and deliberately did not inform Silas of the robbery plan to their superiors. They seem to be planning an early retirement for the sake of the baby Erin conceived.

Silas's gang robbery and Erin-Chris's sabotage plan had gone smoothly until Silas was angered because a bank employee who tried to be heroic lied to Silas that he had not included a pile of money marked with ink. In his anger, Silas reentered the bank to finish off the employee. Chris was forced to trail Silas to stop him and was forced to reveal his identity as an FBI agent. Unfortunately, it was precisely Chris and the bank employee who died at the hands of Silas.

Seeing Silas returning without Chris, Erin was shocked when he realized that Chris had been killed by Silas. Toby, who was in a car with Erin, was also shocked when he learned that both Erin and Chris were police. Erin then drove the car until it hit the trash can. Erin then hid the money from the robbery in one of the trash cans.

Back in the present, Erin hears from Ethan (Scoot McNairy), Shelby's adoption father (Jade Pettyjohn), Erin-Chris's natural child who is now sixteen years old that his daughter often skipped school and had not returned home for several days. Erin discovers Shelby is making out with her much older boyfriend, Jay (Beau Knapp) in a bar. Instead of successfully holding Shelby home, Erin was taken by a security guard at the bar after hitting Jay. Jay and Shelby's attitude clearly showed hostility. Jay even made fun of him as a drunk prostitute. Erin was forced to ask Ethan to look after Shelby because the return of Silas made Erin not have time to handle Shelby, especially Shelby was later hospitalized due to a broken arm while helping Jay who was involved in a fight at the bar.

Erin's investigation began with Toby. From his now dying cousin, Erin then found Arturo (Zach Villa) directing him to DiFranco (Bradley Whitford), a lawyer who washed money from the robberies of Silas's gang. Despite being battered by DiFranco's personal guards, Erin then gathered his determination and remaining strength to beat back, both the bodyguard and DiFranco himself.

From Erin's interrogation of DiFranco, even though he knew Petra's father, DiFanco did not try to help Petra to get out of the gang, even had time to fuck Petra while Petra was still a child. Thanks to the information Erin has examined from DiFranco, it is known that Petra is always the liaison. Silas himself never appeared. Erin then followed Petra.

Unexpectedly, Petra and the five other gang members were intent on robbing the bank. After giving information and asking for help from the local police, without delaying Erin entering the bank. With the help of only two police officers who arrived at the scene the fastest, they stormed into the bank and were involved in a shootout. Several gang members, including Petra, managed to escape. Erin then followed Petra who was shot in the leg and managed to kidnap her. Erin did not want to surrender Petra before finding Silas. After intimidating Petra, Erin managed to get the location and time Silas would appear to take the money robbed by his gang. Without wasting time Erin immediately looked for Silas, but before Erin convinced Ethan to take Shelby away by giving her money from Petra's robbery. Because Ethan refused, Erin was forced to bribe Jay with the money robbed by Petra to leave Shelby forever and not contact him again. Jay was hesitant, but because he was tempted by the money Erin offered, Jay finally agreed.

Back at Silas, Erin manages to find the man who killed Chris and shoots him repeatedly to death. After his revenge was answered, Erin then rested in his car. His condition was getting weaker due to bruises and bruises on his body that had not been treated because he focused on hunting Silas. The scene then switches back to the initial scene when Erin heads to the scene of the crime and asks questions to his two colleagues, what if he knows who the killer is.

One thing that should be admired from this film is the ingenuity that was presented from this script made by Phil Hay and Matt Manfredi. Actually, the ending of this film is very typical. Erin managed to avenge Chris's death by killing Silas, as well as getting rid of Jay from Shelby's life, also finally managed to express his love for his only child. A typical ending for thriller or action, but the ingenuity of Hay-Manfredi who hid the ending and 'tricked' the audience into believing that the film was advanced, the typical ending seemed elegant, felt like a plot twist. In the first scene, Hay-Manfredi accidentally did not insert a description of "some ... before" or "several ... hours before". Smart, simple trick. Overall, this film is easy to digest. The plot is not complicated, and we must acknowledge the expertise of the makeup team who managed to conjure Nicole Kidman's beautiful face into a dull and full of wrinkles. In short, this film is pretty good for my taste.

Trailer The Destroyer