Nicole Kidman

Could one see a magazine deciding that Julia Roberts or Jennifer Lopez or Angelina Jolie were 'intriguing'? There is something mysterious and not quite settled with Nicole Kidman. That's why David Thomson, one of the world's greatest writers on film, knew he wanted to write about her, because while there may (just) be more attractive women on the screen, and even more consistent actresses, there isn't any modern career that has so transformed itself. It's as if Nicole Kidman suddenly decided no, I'm not just Mrs Tom, I'm not just a nice red-headed Sheila, I'm an actress, a businesswoman, I'm something - and I'm going to show you all. How else does one reconcile the Kidman of the early and middle 1990s, the woman who was so often pretty but not much else in Days of Thunder, Billy Bathgate, Far and Away, Malice, Batman Forever, The Portrait of a Lady and even Eyes Wide Shut, with the steady progression of Moulin Rouge, The Others and Birthday Girl, and then The Hours, Cold Mountain and others? Not all her recent films are good and she's not a triumph in all of them - but she is a dangerous actress, a risk-taker, someone pushing at her own talent. This is a biography of an Australian girl who has become world famous. It's also the record of an actress as she grew. The book is a vivid portrait, a searching treatment of acting and of a business career, but also a tribute to someone who has it in her to move millions of strangers.