With a widely-anticipated outing in DC superhero flick Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom this coming Christmas and an appearance in psychological thriller Holland, Michigan currently in production, Nicole Kidman is going to be firmly in the spotlight in the months to come.
In truth, the Academy Award-winning actor never really left it, transitioning from young Hollywood starlet to mid-career leading lady with the minimum of fuss, without compromising her determination to take on independent dramas just as often as big-budget Hollywood blockbusters. Here are 10 of Kidman’s finest performances on both the big and small screens.
10. Australia
In the 20-year gap between Baz Luhrmann’s Best Picture nominations for Moulin Rouge! (2003) and Elvis (2022), the Australian director produced some choice features, including the Leonardo DiCaprio vehicle The Great Gatsby (2013). Less critically acclaimed but still watchable was Australia, a 2008 historical epic set during the early years of the Second World War. Kidman plays an English aristocrat whose husband is killed – apparently by an Aboriginal – before her arrival at a remote cattle station, where she falls in love with a drover played with grizzled panache by Hugh Jackman. Subplots involving a surrogate son and a rivalry with another cattle rancher provide emotional heft, and Kidman’s work here is never less than competent, though the film’s bloated runtime and telegraphed ending meant that both she and Luhrmann were overlooked by the major awards ceremonies.
9. Batman Forever
Haters of Joel Schumacher-era Batman would rather forget about this 1995 sequel to Tim Burton’s Batman (1989) and Batman Returns (1992), but those willing to overlook the day-glo esthetics and batty plot will find much to like in Batman Forever, with Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones forming a gloriously chaotic double act as the Riddler and Harvey Two-Face, despite their famously turbulent on-set relations. Kidman, meanwhile, makes the most of her screen time opposite Val Kilmer’s Batman as Chase Meridian, a psychologist who gets under the Caped Crusader’s skin – “do I need skin-tight vinyl and a whip?” – before the pair begin a relationship. The character is neither as compelling nor as likable as Vicki Vale from the 1989 original, but Kidman makes the most of the material, and her onscreen romance quietly smolders.
8. Eyes Wide Shut
Stanley Kubrick’s final film was a box office hit on release in 1999, but removal of rose-tinted spectacles shows it to be neither as groundbreaking nor compelling as Kubrick believed it to be (the revered director died four months before its premiere). Kidman and Tom Cruise star as Alice and Bill, a respectable New York couple harboring secret desires for other people. Bill discovers a sex cult, and receives threatening letters from its members, while Alice dreams of sex with other men. Throughout, it struggles with tone, never quite succeeding in establishing its credentials either as a psychological thriller or titillating erotic drama. Being a Kubrick feature, however, it is exquisitely shot, with some technically flawless long takes – and the whole thing is underpinned by two intense, heartfelt performances from Kidman and Cruise as the protagonists.
7. Strangerland
This slow-burning Australian drama met with mixed reviews on its release in 2015, but a star-studded cast including Joseph Fiennes and Hugo Weaving elevates it above the mundane. Kidman plays Catherine, the wife of Fiennes’ character Matthew, and the mother to Tom and Lilly, their teenaged children, who disappear shortly after the family move to a remote town in the Australian outback. An investigation begins, during which it is establishes that Lilly has had several underage sexual relationships, including with a former teacher in the family’s former hometown. The resulting web of strained family dynamics, underpinned by Catherine’s hurt and Matthew’s shame and anger, is played out against the barren, blasted landscape of Australia’s Northern Territory; and the storyline’s bleakness is heightened by Kidman’s committed portrayal of a distraught mother.
6. Dogville
Lars von Trier’s 2003 drama is not for the faint of heart. It is notorious for its avant-garde credentials and its unflinching depictions of the most gruesome acts of violence, all to convey the message that evil can arise even in the most close-knit of communities. Kidman is on form as Grace, who, on the run, proves her worth around the town of Dogville and is slowly accepted by the inhabitants – until the authorities put up wanted posters. Conflicted between turning her in and continuing to shelter her, a twisted power dynamic begins to appear, as Grace is slowly turned into a slave, and repeatedly violated by members of the community. Von Trier’s misanthropy is on full show here, but Kidman’s restrained performance does much to put the sledgehammery denouement in its proper perspective.
5. The Railway Man
Based on a true story, the 2013 drama The Railway Man told the story of Eric Lomax, a member of Britain’s “forgotten army” who fought in the Far East during the Second World War. Played by Colin Firth, Lomax’s harrowing story of forced labor and torture in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp is complemented by contemplative work by Kidman as wife Patricia, who accompanies him decades later on his journey back to Burma to seek closure for his traumatic memories. The film did middling box office, but Kidman attracted rave reviews for one of her most affecting and understated performances.
4. Moulin Rouge!
Kidman’s first collaboration with Baz Luhrmann was a critical and commercial success. Ewan McGregor, fresh from the first of several widely lauded performances as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels, turns in solid work here as Christian, a down-on-his-luck writer in fin de siècle Paris. But it’s Kidman who steals the show as Satine, a courtesan who ends up in a love triangle between Christian and the Duke of Monroth, who angles for Satine’s hand with the connivance of the Moulin Rouge’s owner in exchange for money to keep the cabaret going. As pure melodrama, the premise would work well enough; add in some scintillating musical numbers, excellent supporting work from luminaries such as Jim Broadbent, Richard Roxburgh, and Kylie Minogue, and the result is a delightful movie that has rightly taken its place in the pantheon of great musicals.
3. Big Little Lies
Small but perfectly formed, the series – on which Kidman also worked as an executive producer – bowed out after two seasons and just 14 episodes, although Big Little Lies caused quite the stir upon its debut on HBO back in 2017. Featuring an impressive cast including Laura Dern and Reese Witherspoon, the drama told the story of five women living in suburban California whose lives are affected by a murder in their community. Over the course of the show’s two seasons, their seemingly happy existences slowly unravel, with plotlines including domestic violence, post-divorce jealousy, and strained mother-daughter relationships. Kidman’s work as domestic abuse survivor Celeste Wright won her a Golden Globe and a Primetime Emmy, and Big Little Lies stands as perhaps Kidman’s most impressive television outings to date.
2. Dead Calm
Dead Calm confirmed Sam Neill’s status as a bona fide leading man – a well-received outing in The Hunt For Red October (1990) and a career-defining performance as Alan Grant in Jurassic Park (1993) would soon follow – but Kidman gives equally good value in this taut 1989 thriller. Neill and Kidman play John and Rae, a husband and wife who, having lost their young son in a car accident, embark on a boating trip on the high seas in order to collect themselves. Soon, they encounter a waterlogged schooner manned by a single sailor, Hughie, who tells them the crew is dead from food poisoning – but when John goes aboard, he finds nothing but mangled corpses. Hughie sails away with Rae, and the stage is set for some well-judged suspense scenes, as well as a dash of horror. At the time, critics balked at the over-the-top finale, but flawless work from Neill as the determined John, Kidman as the courageous Rae, and a pre-Titanic Billy Zane as the unhinged Hughie more than make up for the plot’s farfetchedness.
1. The Hours
Kidman’s Academy Award-winning performance in The Hours remains as mesmerizing now as it was on release in 2002. Set across three time periods and settings, including 1950s suburbia and the literati circles of early 20th Century New York, it would take some truly stupendous work to top three-time Oscar-winner Meryl Streep’s portrayal of a literary editor, or Julianne Moore’s equally impressive work as a repressed housewife in Eisenhower’s America. Kidman outshines them both in a dazzling performance as troubled novelist Virginia Woolf, who, in 1920s England, receives a visit from her sister and her family – a blissful domestic backdrop against which her battle with mental illness is played out, always movingly, at times harrowingly. The performance bagged Kidman an Oscar, a BAFTA, and – alongside Streep and Moore – the Berlin International Film Festival’s Silver Bear for Best Actress, firmly cementing her position as one of Hollywood’s finest.
