Nicole Kidman Is at Her Brave Best in Wild Tale of Sexual Adventure [Video]

Nicole Kidman, as you probably know, is a dauntingly hardworking actress of great versatility.

She’s done impressive TV work, notably on HBO’s Big Little Lies and Prime Video’s Expats. She won an Oscar as Virginia Woolf in 2002’s The Hours and then went on to give clever, credible performances as everyone from Lucille Ball (Being the Ricardos) to Princess Grace (Grace of Monaco).

With her small, brittle voice, she doesn’t have the sweeping theatrical heft of her fellow Australian Cate Blanchett (Apple TV+’s Disclaimer). What she possesses, though, are a physical delicacy and a sharp, ironic intelligence. These serve her well, especially in bold, adventurous roles that seem to free up a deeper, somewhat unnerving dramatic instinct — films that you could call “Nicole Unbound” vehicles.

These include the mesmerizingly odd Dogville, in which she plays a gangster’s daughter victimized by the citizens of a small, mean town (her stunning revenge is cruel and pitiless), as …