Babygirl is an erotic thriller that is, unlike so many which came before, both erotic and thrilling. But what makes it novel is that the thrills are derived from the eroticism itself. Sure, much of the narrative thrust (ha) is borne of our lead not wishing to be caught by her family and colleagues in a sordid workplace affair, but that’s an afterthought to the focus of the film: two horned-up adults messily trying to reconcile their mutual animal attraction while also navigating and negotiating one another’s kinks.
Nicole Kidman plays Romy, a sexually frustrated CEO who, after making love with her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), rushes into another room to secretly finger herself to completion while watching porn on her laptop. One night she coyly confesses to Jacob that she’d like to put porn on the TV next time they have a roll in the hay, but his response is lukewarm, effectively shutting down an already guarded exchange. They’re comfortable, which means, as it does for so many people here in the real world, that they’re no longer as sexually adventurous as they might have once been.
Enter Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a new intern at Romy’s company. He’s ambitious and friendly, but he lacks the filter of propriety required for workplace interactions. His boldness is an immediate turn-on for Romy, and the two soon begin a steamy affair that calls into question the concrete nature of the power hierarchy to which we all refer before deciding who, in any social exchange, “has the power.”
Is it the man? The woman? The elder? The youth? The CEO? The intern? The person with everything to lose? The person with nothing to lose?
The dom?
The sub?
There’s even a storyline involving an ambitious young woman of color at Romy’s company, played with pointed verve by Sophie Wilde, which brings a racial element into this reworking of demographic hierarchies.
There are so many intersectional collisions to manage — too many to emerge from the film with a basic abuser/victim dynamic. Separate from the hurtful dishonesty of infidelity, this hot and heavy sexual affair defies the simple black/white moral categorizations that few are willing to eschew when wrapping their head around the carnal exchanges of others. The return to nuance in this realm could prove tough for many audiences to swallow, but it’s a necessary gray area that Babygirl boldly traverses.
Kidman goes deeper than many actresses her age would be willing, and it’s why she will go down in history as one of the best to ever do it. As Romy, she fully embraces the vanities and shortcomings of the character, placing herself into many exposed and unsavory places, thus selling us on her inherent humanity. Because really, when we boil it all down to basics, is there anything more human than desperately needing an orgasm? All things considered, it’s why we’re here, biologically speaking. A prime directive, if you will. Hers is a raw performance that embraces the contradictions inherent to kinks and fetishes, while finding an empathy that, given the dishonesty of her behavior, is likely difficult to create on the page.
Dickinson is given less to do since he’s more of a secondary character, but he plays it with a compelling ambiguity. At times Samuel feels like he knows exactly how to conduct an affair, but further expansion of his character indicates that these are moments of pointed luck. He’s just as hapless in expressing his desires as Romy, but the two are constantly pushing and pulling until the perfect permutation of their needs clicks into place. Two people clumsily getting into an affair shouldn’t be so sexy, but here we are.
Overall, Babygirl could probably lose twenty minutes or so, especially since the plot, until the film’s final moments, goes nowhere we haven’t been before. Just a general shaving of certain scenes to benefit the pace. While it’s clear that writer/director Halina Reijn is, to use a sexual term, cleverly putting us through a feature length edging session, there are times where it can feel, to use another sexual term, like too much of a tease. This is a very very small complaint, and I only mention it in the spirit of describing my own experience in watching the film. As is typical with this criticism, a second viewing may dissolve it entirely. One thing is for sure: Reijn has grown leaps and bounds as a cinematic storyteller in the time since her previous film, Bodies Bodies Bodies (which was already pretty damn excellent).
But while I’m in the topic of Reijn, whose future work I will not be missing, we should give a shoutout to Kidman as a producer: she’s been finding talented women filmmakers and pushing to get their films made/released, while also providing for herself an opportunity to take on raw, challenging roles. Talk about using power for good!!
Directed by Halina Reijn
Written by Haline Reijn
Starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wild, Antonio Banderas
Rated R, 114 minutes
