Practical Magic (1998)

Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman star as two witches in a highly flawed comedy-drama directed by Griffin Dunne. They are sisters trying to overcome a family curse that brings doom on any man they fall in love with.

It’s tonally all over the place – a sort of fairytale crossed with Thelma and Louise, Harry Potter and various horror/supernatural elements. Stockard Channing and Diane Wiest are miscast or misused as two eccentric aunts, and it wasn’t really clear why they were in the film at all. 

The film tries to address the topic of domestic abuse, but it’s a topic that requires a much more sensitive approach than this. The attempts to address it with comedy are inconsistent and grating.

Bullock and Kidman do their best with the material, but cannot salvage an awkward mess of a film.

The Railway Man (2013)

Based on a true story from Eric Lomax's memoir. 

Patricia (Nicole Kidman) meets railway enthusiast Eric (Colin Firth) and the pair quickly fall in love and marry. But Patricia soon realises that Eric remains deeply traumatised by the suffering he experienced in a Japanese POW camp during World War II. While working on the Thai-Burma Railway he had been tortured by the Japanese military secret police, including their interpreter Takashi Nagase, and was never able to come to terms with the horrors he endured. 

It’s an emotional story, extremely well-handled. Firth and Kidman are both excellent. You can really believe they are in love, and the scene in which they first meet, on a train journey, exudes warmth and charm. I wanted more of that. You can also believe how damaged Firth is. 

The younger and older depictions of the key characters work well, and the time transitions are elegantly managed. 

The ending is unexpectedly satisfying.

The Peacemaker (1997)

Excellent thriller directed by Mimi Leder. 

George Clooney and Nicole Kidman have to save the world after 10 nuclear weapons are stolen by Russians.

It’s genuinely exciting, with some particularly strong scenes – one set on a bridge and another in the streets of New York City. It’s the sort of film you wish the 1990s James Bond instalments had been, with strong characters, credible geopolitics, tight plotting, and a convincing scenario. The Pierce Brosnan films, sadly, had none of those things.

Kidman impresses more than usual as a senior member of the National Security Council turned action hero.

Cold Mountain (2003)

Truly excellent drama set during the US civil war. It’s a war film, a love story and a historical epic. 

When the war breaks out, the quiet, inarticulate Inman (Jude Law) is one of the young men from North Carolina who has to fight with the Confederate army. But he has just fallen for Ada (Nicole Kidman), the daughter of the preacher (Donald Sutherland), and has to leave her – just as their relationship is beginning. Injured in battle, he attempts to make his way back home to Ada while being hunted for deserting. 

All of the leads are on excellent form. Renée Zellweger plays Ruby, a plucky free spirit who helps Ada salvage her farm and her self-respect. Philip Seymour Hoffman is a crooked preacher. Natalie Portman is a widowed mother. There are also parts for Jack White, Ray Winstone, Brendan Gleeson and Cillian Murphy. 

It’s an emotional and affecting work that avoids cliché, especially since the romance is unconventional to begin with. The couple barely know each other, but their connection is overwhelmingly powerful. As a result, the film is too.

The Interpreter (2005)

An interpreter at the United Nations (Nicole Kidman) overhears a conversation that suggests the leader of an African state is to be assassinated when he arrives to make a speech. A recently widowed Secret Service agent (Sean Penn) investigates and senses that she’s not telling the full truth, but the pair are drawn together by their shared losses. 

Directed by Sydney Pollack, it’s a smart and sensitive thriller that’s very nicely shot. Kidman and Penn are both excellently drawn characters and their relationship is subtle and nuanced. Catherine Keener is great as Penn’s professional partner, but doesn’t get given enough lines. 

The plot is complicated and there might be a few loose ends. For example, the phrase that the interpreter overhears doesn’t make sense in the light of what ultimately takes place. But that doesn't spoil an excellent thriller.

Before I Go to Sleep (2014)

Psychological thriller.

Nicole Kidman stars as Christine, a woman who lost her memory 10 years ago. Each morning her husband Ben (Colin Firth) has to tell her who she is and what happened to her, because she can’t remember anything from before the last time she slept. What trauma caused her to forget everything? Why is Ben concealing certain facts? And what are the motives of the neuroscientist (Mark Strong) who offers to help her without Ben’s knowledge?

It’s an intriguing premise – somewhere between Memento and Groundhog Day. Plot-wise there were some questionable aspects. Why doesn’t Christine simply keep a notebook and add information as she learns it? There’s a digital camera (supplied by the neuroscientist), but how does it get new batteries? What stops its memory from filling up? And how are the photos on the wall explained once the big twist has been revealed?

On the plus side, the English landscapes (such as Greenwich Park) look better than they usually do in films.

The Others (2001)

Deeply creepy supernatural thriller. 

Nicole Kidman is a mother of two children living in Jersey in 1945. The family begin to hear strange noises and see odd things in their large old house. They are joined by a new housekeeper, a gardener and a mute girl, and the inexplicable happenings become more frequent. It’s difficult to say more without spoil the film, which all hinges on one massive plot twist. 

Kidman is superb as a woman on the edge, driven by love for her children and a profound sense of loss after her husband failed to return from the war. Fionnula Flanagan is perfect as the housekeeper Bertha Mills – an initially reassuring and later fairly unsettling presence. The suspense is built up expertly, with added tension coming from the reactions of the children to the way events unfold. 

Music by writer/director Alejandro Amenábar adds to the sense of threat, and the uncanny atmosphere – big, dark echoing spaces, the persistently swirling mist outside – is sustained well.

The Hours (2002)

The lives of three women from different eras form intriguing parallels. In Richmond in the 1920s, we see Virginia Woolf (Nicole Kidman) writing Mrs Dalloway and dealing with suicidal thoughts. In 1950s California, Laura Brown (Julianne Moore) reads Mrs Dalloway and faces her own fears and insecurities. And in New York in 2001, Clarissa Vaughan (Meryl Streep) wrestles with her feelings for an old flame who is dying of AIDS. 

Kidman, Moore and Streep are all fantastic in emotionally complex and challenging roles. Kidman looks absolutely nothing like herself – it’s difficult to believe it’s her – owing to a prosthetic nose. 

There are also strong performances from Miranda Richardson, Jeff Daniels and Ed Harris. 

In many ways it’s a depressing film, and it deals with painful topics. But it also addresses the value of life. 

Intense, sweeping, music by Philip Glass adds emotional depth.