BABYGIRL (2024)
Starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Sophie Wilde, Antonio Banderas, Gaite Jansen, Izabel Mar, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly, Victor Slezak, Anoop Desai, Bartley Booz, Maxwell Whittington-Cooper, Leslie Silva, Dolly Wells, Robert Farrior, Mary Ann Lamb, Gabrielle Policano, Gabriela Torres, Max O'Herlihy, Michael Wichmann and Mareau Hall.
Screenplay by Halina Reijn.
Directed by Halina Reijn.
Distributed by A24. 114 minutes. Rated R.
It is rare enough that movies take a serious, adult look at sexual obsession that you want to give a film which is brave enough to do so the benefit of the doubt, even if it doesn’t quite work for you. Babygirl takes a lot of serious chances – and Nicole Kidman in particular opens herself up to some extremely harsh and humiliating moments – and yet, I can’t say that I ever bought into the movie and the characters, so much as I appreciated its bravery.
The babygirl in the title is Romy (Kidman), a successful 50-something corporate CEO, with a doting husband (Antonio Banderas) and two teen daughters that she loves. And yet, something is missing in her seemingly perfect life. Romy seems somewhat ruled by sex. In fact, we are introduced to her and her husband in the middle of a strenuous lovemaking session. However, when they are done, Romy seems unsatisfied and wanders to another part of the house to finish herself off by masturbating while watching online porn.
It seems that Romy has some deep, dark sexual secret which she has been hiding all of her life. It is a secret which comes to light when she meets Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a much younger man who is working as an intern in her company. The two of them flirt and circle each other until Samuel pushes her hot button – he thinks she wants someone to be in complete control of her, sexually. She wants someone to humiliate her and tell her what she can do and when she can do it.
And she does, as they slowly circle around an affair that could be devastating to Romy’s business life and family life, the danger of the situation just somehow makes it hotter for her. In general, Romy seems much more invested in the relationship than Samuel does, but then again that could be because of his position of domination.
Even though Babygirl is nearly constantly in a state of arousal, I have to admit that it is one of the least sexy films about sex I have seen in quite some time. Actually, let me amend that statement. Since I personally do not share the particular kink that our main characters are so overwhelmed by, I found most of the many sex scenes in Babygirl to be sad, creepy and kind of pathetic. I suppose that someone who shared the characters’ particular proclivities may see them in a very different manner.
There are many sex scenes in Babygirl, although in general they are not overly explicit. More often they are just a bit weird – for example, Samuel making Romy get on all fours and lap up milk from a saucer like she was a cat – rather than sexual. Even when the sex is extreme it mostly seems to be shot so tightly so that you see very little other than the participants’ faces and quick flashes of their bodies.
I won’t even go into the psychological morass about a strong, competent, successful woman who secretly wants (or needs) to be bossed around and treated like a slut.
In fact, honestly, as someone not in the lifestyle, the whole time that Romy and Samuel were together I simply couldn’t figure out what they saw in each other. They didn’t seem to particularly like each other, the sex was dirty and begrudging, and the potential costs to both of them – particularly Romy – just seemed way too high.
Babygirl is well acted and has some interesting ideas, but I can’t really say that I am better off for having seen it. It was sort of like an arty Fifty Shades of Grey.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: December 22, 2024.
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