Going into the second season, the only question in Keith’s mind was how his American Idol obligations would affect the release of his new album, Fuse. That turned out not to be an issue when the album was released in September 2013. Unlike previous albums, Fuse was a product of consultations with numerous producers and fewer musicians, with the producers using technology to build his musical tracks one note at a time. He forsook the energy of live recording with session players to embrace the electronic precision of computer generated tracks. The album had more of a pop feel to it than previous efforts, an obvious overture to crossover music buyers.
Critics were generally supportive. Hitfix’s Melinda Newman gave the album an overall “B.” “Probably the biggest stretch sonically on the album, ‘Come Back to Me,’ is built around a hypnotic electronic loop and a woozy guitar solo.” Will Hermes, writing in Rolling Stone, commented: “It’s hardly news: Urban has been working crossovers since his 1999 solo debut . . . what is surprising, though, is how unforced and fun the record sounds. An affable country talent, Urban here becomes an impressive twang-pop ambassador.”
As Keith fired up his career, Nicole escalated her movie making commitments by signing on to do seven movies for release in 2013 and 2014: Stoker, The Railway Man, Before I Go to Sleep, Paddington, Grace of Monaco, and The Family Fang. Two films were set for 2015, Strangerland and Queen of the Desert. Of those films, Grace of Monaco, is the most interesting and revealing because it reflects Nicole’s life choices in many ways. Grace Kelly gave up a spectacularly promising Hollywood career to move to Monaco to be with the man she loved. When Nicole moved to Nashville to be with the man she loved, she, in effect, turned her back on the Hollywood establishment in an attempt to live her life on her own terms.
When the film was released in 2014, Nicole traveled to France to attend the Cannes Film Festival and was greeted by a boycott by the royal family of Monaco, who had not seen the film but had issued a statement that said, in part: "The trailer appears to be a farce and confirms the totally fictional nature of this film."
As the unofficial spokesperson for the film, Nicole responded that the film had no malice toward the family, but she added the obvious: "It's a fictionalization. You take dramatic license."
The film is set in the early days of Grace Kelly's marriage to Prince Rainer, when she seriously considered returning to Hollywood to work with Alfred Hitchcock.
Nicole explained that her favorite performance of Grace was in Hitchcock's Rear Window." I want them to know the performance was done with love. If they did see the film, they'd see there was an enormous amount of affection for both their parents."
A reporter asked Nicole if she would ever choose romance over career, as Kelly did when she married the prince. Nicole replied in the affirmative: "I think love is the core emotion. I always said when I won the Oscar I went home and did have that, but it was the most intensely lonely moment of my life."
Once she fulfilled her duties at the festival, Nicole wasted no time returning to her home in Nashville. Nicole and Keith have reached a point in their marriage when they thank God for every day that they have together, but they do so with a realization that happiness does not come cheap. Each day they are together is a struggle.
For Keith it is a struggle against alcoholism and a struggle to blend his career ambitions with his hopes for his marriage and family. Keith once told a reporter that Nicole has been more than a life-changing influence on him and, in fact, had saved his life.
For Nicole it is a struggle over surrendering her life to her husband and her children, while maintaining her self-identity as an actress and combating the depression that she experiences when she fails to live up to the promises that she makes to herself. After making a ton of movies about relationships, Nicole has learned what few people ever come to understand. Relationships are neither free nor easy. To be successful relationships must endure a lifetime of dedicated maintenance.
Nicole was never comfortable in her marriage to Tom, not even in the best of times. Too much of their relationship was based on fantasy. She was never able to achieve a balance between fantasy and reality, especially within the smothering confines dictated by Scientology. Today, within her marriage to Keith, she has found exactly the right balance to exist as a wife, parent, and artist.
FILMOGRAPHY
Bush Christmas (1983)
CAST
John Ewart
John Howard
Mark Spain
James Wingrove
Peter Summer
Nicole Kidman
Manalpuy
Vineta O
Malley
Maurice Houghes
Bob Hunt
Director: Henri Safran
Written by: Ted Roberts
Producers: Giolda Baracchi, Paul D. Barron
Nicole Kidman’s character is one of three children in the Thompson household. As Christmas approaches, the family learns that it will lose its farm on January 1 unless it can raise enough money to pay the mortgage. One night, as the family sleeps, thieves steal the family’s prize possession, a spirited racehorse named Prince. The following morning Nicole, along with her two brothers and an aborigine named Manalpuy, sneak away from the farm to go after the horse. They undergo many adventures before they finally catch up with the horse thieves. This well-directed film provides excellent family entertainment; it is aired every Christmas on Australian television.
BMX Bandits (1983)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
David Argue
John Ley
Angelo D’Angelo
James Lugton
Bryan Marshall
Brian Sloman
Peter Browne
Bill Brady
Linda Newton
Bob Hicks
Guy Norris
Chris Hession
Producers: Tom Broadbridge, Paul F. Davies
Director: Brian Trenchard-Smith
Written by: Patrick Edgeworth, Russell Hagg
The BMX Bandits is a teen bicycle club. Nicole Kidman, who plays Judy, meets the bikers when the rowdy teens crash into grocery carts at the store where she works. She gets fired because of the incident and joins the biker club. Their paths cross with a gang of bank robbers when they accidentally discover a cache of high-tech radios that were meant for the robbers. They sell the radios, one at a time, as the robbers track them down. Much of the film is about the bikers’ efforts to escape from the robbers. At one point, the robbers corner Nicole in a warehouse and it looks bleak for her for a moment; then she escapes and leads the robbers on a chase through the city. Nicole handles her part beautifully, but she often seems ill at ease with her body. She is taller than most of the men in the movie and her physical presence is a factor in every scene in which she appears.
Archer's Adventure (1985)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Brett Climo
Ernie Gray
John Flaus
Ned Lander
Tony Barry
Paul Bertram
Robert Coleby
Anna Maria Monticelli
Producer: Moya Iceton
Director: Denny Lawrence
Written by: Anne Brooksbank
Brett Climo plays the role of a stable boy that talks his employer into letting him take one of his best horses, Archer, on a 500-mile journey to enter a prestigious race in Melbourne. On his first day on the road, he is robbed of his money. On the second day, he comes across a farm, where he asks for food and lodging. He meets Nicole Kidman, who is there to visit her uncle. They become friends and then part when he resumes his journey and she goes home to her own family.
After another adventure or two, Climo meets Nicole again when his travels take him to her parents’ farm. He leaves Archer in the barn so that he can attend a wedding party in the house. While he dances with Nicole, Archer breaks free and joins a herd of wild horses. Climo tracks Archer down and resumes his journey to Melbou
rne.
his is a good family film that capitalizes on spectacular scenery. Nicole does not have a large impact on the film, but she shows incredible poise in her scenes with Climo and that, in itself, attracts attention to her character.
Wills & Burke (1985)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Garry McDonald
Kym Gyngell
Peter Collingwood
Jonathan Hardy
Roderick Williams
Mark Little
Roy Baldwin
Alex Menglet
Tony Rickards
Simon Thorpe
Producers: Margot McDonald, Bob Weis
Director: Bob Weis
Written by: Philip Dalkin
This is a comedy that depicts the final stretch of William Wills’s and Robert Burke’s crossing of the Australian outback. No one associated with the film was willing to discuss it with the author and all video copies of the film seem to have vanished.
Windrider (1986)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Tom Burlinson
Jill Perryman
Charles “Bud” Tingwell
Simon Chilvers
Kim Bullad
Stig Wemyss
Mark Williams
Alastair Cummings
Robin Miller
Producer: Paul D. Barron
Director: Vincent Monton
Written by: Everett De Roche, Bonnie Harris
Nicole Kidman plays a strong-willed rock singer who falls for a windsurfer (Tom Burlinson) who works at his father’s engineering firm. There is not much of a plot, except for a windsurfing contest, and most of the dialogue between Nicole and Burlinson is uninspiring. The movie’s chief importance is related to the fact that Nicole undertakes her first nude scene at the age of nineteen (she showers with Burlinson and can be seen jumping in and out of bed a couple of times). It was also the first time Nicole attempted to create a character with a punk attitude. She wasn’t entirely successful, but the energy she put into the role was admirable.
Nightmaster (1987)
(a.k.a. Watch the Shadows Dance)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Tom Jennings
Joanne Samuel
Vince Martin
Craig Pearce
Doug Parkinson
Jeremy Shadlow
Alexander Broun
Laurence Clifford
Paul Gleeson
Producers: Jan Tyrrell, James Michael Vernon
Director: Mark Joffe
Written by: Michael McGennan
Nicole Kidman plays a student who falls in with a group that engages in war games with paint guns. The plot revolves around a karate teacher, a crazed war veteran and cocaine addict, who kills a drug dealer. The only witness to the murder is a member of the war-games group. When the karate teacher goes after the witness, everyone gets involved in the action. Nicole has no decent lines in this movie, but watching her is a treat, especially when she loosens the throttle on a very heavy Australian accent. Movie fans will find little to satisfy them in this film, but Nicole fans will enjoy watching her maneuver with energetic grace through a very bad script.
The Bit Part (1987)
CAST
Chris Haywood
Katrina Foster
Nicole Kidman
John Wood
Maurie Fields
Brian Mannix
Deborra-Lee Furness
Ian McFadyen
Maggie Millar
Mauren Edwards
Wilbur Wilde
Producers: Frank Brown, John Gauci, Peter Herbert, Ian Rogers, Steve Vizard
Director: Brendan Maher
Writers: Peter Herbert, Ian McFadyen
The Bit Part is a comedy that was released in Australia, and then quickly died a painless death. No one associated with the film was willing to discuss it, a commentary all unto itself, and no video copies of the film could be located by the author for review.
Dead Calm (1989)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Sam Neill
Billy Zane
Rod Mullinar
Joshua Tilden
George Shevtsov
Michael Long
Lisa Collins
Paua Hudson-Brinkley
Sharon Cook
Malinda Rutter
Producers: Terry Hayes, George Miller, Doug Mitchell
Director: Phillip Noyce
Assistant director: Stuart Freeman
Written by: Charles Williams, Terry Hayes
Nicole Kidman plays the part of a woman who loses her young son in an automobile accident and then goes on a cruise with her husband (Sam Neill) to recover from the loss. After three weeks at sea, they spot their first ship, a schooner that looms ahead, dead in the water. As they stare at the schooner, they see a man in a dingy rowing toward them. Played by Billy Zane, the man tells them that the ship is sinking and that all aboard are dead of food poisoning. At that point, the plot takes a wicked turn in this suspenseful psychological thriller and Nicole, giving a flawless performance, shines as a woman who must fight for the lives of herself and her husband. This is a first-rate movie, though the ending did bother some critics who thought it was just a tad over the top.
Emerald City (1989)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Chris Haywood
Dennis Miller
Bruce Venable
Michelle Torres
Ella Scott
Jan Ringrose
Dar Davies
Producer: Joan Long
Director: Michael Jenkins
Writer: David Williamson
Nicole Kidman plays the role of a woman who gets caught in a love triangle with a screenwriter and his wife (who expands it to a quadrangle when she falls for her boss). There is not much in the way of a plot in this Australian-made comedy, but Nicole did receive a nomination from the Australian Film Institute for Best Actress in a Supporting Role. The movie was released in the United States in 1992, but it quickly dropped from sight and never made it into video distribution.
Flirting (1991)
CAST
Nicole Kidman
Noah Taylor
Thandie Newton
Bartholomew Rose
Felix Nobis
Josh Picker
Kiri Paramore
Marc Gray
Gregg Palmer
Joshua Marshall
David Wieland
Craig Black
Les Hill
Producers: George Miller, Doug Mitchell, Terry Hayes
Director: John Duigan
Writer: John Duigan
This story takes place in 1965 at two exclusive private schools in Australia. Since one of the schools is for boys only and the other school is for girls only—and they are located in close proximity—it surprises no one that romances occur from time to time, especially since the schools encourage joint educational and social programs between the two institutions.
The plot of this coming-of-age drama centers on the character played by Noah Taylor, a somewhat nerdy white student who falls in love with a beautiful and eminently more sophisticated black student played by Thandie Newton. The interracial nature of the relationship is never a factor in the story. The dramatic tension is derived from the obstacles the two must overcome to explore their romance.
Nicole Kidman plays an older student who assumes responsibility for Newton’s social development at the school. The romance presents a problem for Nicole at first, but she soon is won over by Newton’s determination to break the rules in the pursuit of love. Nicole does a first-rate job of acting in this film and, for the first time, shows an engaging wrinkle in her on-screen sexuality, one that does not require nudity.
Nicole Kidman: A Kind of Life Page 24
