Between Water And Sky

With her aquatic life and stratospheric career, Nicole Kidman is a creature of two realms. Starring roles in three new movies prove that she is as relevant— and impassioned—as ever.

- Brennan Kilbane

every single one of God’s creatures in this wine bar is looking at Nicole Kidman, who gracefully excuses herself from our shared Caesar salad to float to the bathroom. As soon as Kidman gets up, a voraciously chatty woman nearby, who has been eyeing Kidman over her husband’s shoulder, stops trash-talking her next-door neighbor midsentence. The sole waitress watches Kidman cautiously from afar. Maybe they are gazing through her translucent skin, or wondering why Nicole Kidman, celebrated movie star, is dining at a strip mall wine bar at 1 o’clock in the afternoon, or perhaps they have never before seen a citizen of Oceania, a rare demographic in Nashville that comprises .2 percent of the populace. Regardless, they are joined in watching her amble preternaturally toward the bathroom, eyes trained on her legs, because no human being walks the way Nicole Kidman walks.

Arms rigidly pressed to her sides, posture geometrically perfect, she moves at the pace of one step every two seconds, like a local deity blessing onlookers with her presence and some scattered eye contact. When Kidman says hello to the gossipmonger near us, the woman doesn’t say anything, focusing all of her energy on not imploding. She can’t eke out a single syllable while beholding Nicole Kidman, queen of 360 Bistro, empress of this West Nashville strip mall, acclaimed actor, gazelle on two legs, moving glacially about the wine bar.

“Something you need to be aware of,” begins Karyn Kusama, who directed Kidman in this fall’s Destroyer, “is that she is legitimately statuesque.”