Kidman's detective transforms Destroyer

TORONTO - It was as she forcefully stuffed actress Tatiana Maslany into the trunk of a car that the sheer out-of-body experience of her role in the brutal LA noir thriller Destroyer came into focus for Nicole Kidman.

"I was putting her in the trunk of that car going: 'What the hell is this?'" Kidman recalled at the film's evening premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

As much as we've come to expect it, Kidman's transformations can startle even herself. And just as has so often been the case, Kidman's powers of metamorphosis again have a film festival buzzing and the 51-year-old actress back among the Oscar contenders.