‘Babygirl’ Movie Review: Nicole Kidman Shows No Fear In Kinky Adult Drama
Photo from A24
From Jeremy Kibler
You kids are always asking for movies to be hornier. Well, Babygirl got the message, and it’s being delivered on Jesus’ birthday. Power dynamics in the domestic and corporate worlds get a kinky twist in writer-director Halina Reijn’s follow-up to 2022’s scathing gen-Z whodunit Bodies Bodies Bodies. As much as a Christmas-set adult drama about marital ennui as Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, Babygirl is actually more interested in exploring lust, control, and consent through a powerful woman (played by one Nicole Kidman) who finally finds that Big O. It’s daring and provocative without being just sexually explicit, and it’ll pair well with a tall glass of milk.
Babygirl is bookended with an orgasm, but the one at the end is different from the one at the beginning. That orgasm, of course, belongs to Nicole Kidman, one of our most risk-taking A-listers who gives one of her most emotionally and physically fearless performances in quite some time. Here, she plays Romy, the CEO of a successful automation corporation. She has a happy life with her husband, Broadway theater director Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and two daughters. Although Jacob satisfies himself in the bedroom with his wife, Romy is sexually frustrated, having to secretly finish herself off in another room. After 19 years of marriage, perhaps she’s looking for someone else to match her freak. Enter Samuel (Harris Dickinson), an intern in his twenties who seems to know how to control an unleashed dog outside of the office (Samuel always carries a spare cookie on him, but who doesn’t?). When Samuel requests a meeting that she has no time for, Romy begins her sub journey.
Fifty Shades of Grey, this is not. Approached through the female gaze, Babygirl doesn’t judge or shame Romy’s needs. The film seems to be headed into Erotic Thriller territory, particularly Adrian Lyne’s Unfaithful, but it goes in another direction. In that movie, Romy would throw her life away for a thrill and get punished for it somehow. Halina Reijn’s script has more curiosity, like where women in power derive their pleasure. Romy’s childhood in a commune cult could have probably been fleshed out more, but Kidman still makes Romy’s sexually charged journey a riveting and empathetic one. For all of the stupid criticisms the actress has been received for what she does to her own face, Botox actually figures into the film as part of Romy’s forever-young regimen, and that openness from Kidman is refreshing.
Harris Dickinson has the slightly less demanding and defined role next to Kidman, but he brings a little danger and enough ambiguity to the quiet storm that is Samuel. Antonio Banderas would seemingly have the thankless role as The Husband, and while he does get third billing, the quietly commanding Banderas finds notes of heartbreak and strength as Jacob. Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me) is strong as Esme, Romy’s assistant who’s eager for her much-deserved promotion, and Esther McGregor (Ewan’s daughter) is also very good as Isabel, one of Romy and Jacob’s two daughters.
Babygirl is bound to divide audiences. There will be those who find it too risqué and others who won’t find it erotic enough, but it’s surprisingly slyly funny and beautifully made. Cinematographer Jasper Wolf’s cinematography frequently mesmerizes, whether it’s just Romy and Samuel’s first intimate one-on-one or an aerial shot over Romy’s country house. Cristobal Tapia De Veer’s moody, ethereal score is so effective, and a couple of needle drops are so unexpected that they work anyway, particularly George Michael’s “Father Figure.”
If you need to see one satisfying movie this year where Nicole Kidman has an affair with a hot younger man (the other being A Family Affair on Netflix), make it Babygirl. That’s an order.
Rating: 3.5/5
Babygirl is currently in theaters.
