Editor’s note: This review contains spoilers for “Babygirl”
Halina Reijn’s “Babygirl” (2024) stars Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in what promises to be an exciting exploration of sexual desire, repression, and power. The film takes place in New York City and follows Romy (Nicole Kidman), a high-powered tech company CEO who finds herself engaging in a kinky affair with Samuel (Harris Dickinson), a much younger intern. In a seemingly complex play of power, both intimately and professionally, what started as an outlet to explore her repressed sexual nature quickly spins out of hand, threatening her marriage and career.
“Babygirl” does some things right. Kidman’s performance was a particular standout, providing representation for sexually repressed and unsatisfied older women. Though she has never been known to be a shy actress, Kidman truly bares all without fear, bringing us a submissive, botox-filled gift, perfect for the holiday season. The soundtrack was also incredible, with the “Father Figure” needledrop accompanying Harris Dickinson’s dance scene being a damn near religious experience. Other soundtrack standouts include Robyn’s “Dancing On My Own,” Le Tigre’s “Deceptacon,” and basically all of Cristobal Tapia De Veer’s original score.
Despite its successes, “Babygirl” also gets a lot of things wrong. The initial relationship between Romy and Samuel feels rushed, with little to no tension established before their first meeting in a dingy hotel room. After a couple probing questions, longing glances, and Romy publicly downing a glass of milk at Samuel’s behest, the two jump right into their experimental relationship. Despite Kidman and Dickinson’s undeniable chemistry, the lack of build up results in an unconvincing and strange relationship.
Additionally, the film turns most of its focus toward showing the actual sex that Romy and Samuel engage in, with the sex montage taking up a significant portion of the film’s runtime. Within the montage, there are a couple hot and heavy scenes, but a lot of it is strangely awkward. Many of the scenes consist of Samuel asking Romy to do something, Romy being flustered and not wanting to do it, and then Romy kind of giving in but still not really obliging. These more raw and vulnerable encounters arguably play to the explorative aspect of their relationship, with a lot of Romy’s flustered attitude being attributed to her repression and lack of sexual exploration throughout her life. However, this awkward embarrassment playing alongside gratuitous scenes of literal backshots feels jarring, confusing, and out of place.
The entire premise of “Babygirl” relies on the power dynamic between Romy and Samuel. Romy is the CEO of the company, while Samuel is an intern; she is also much older than Samuel. However, in their sexual activity, Samuel is the more dominant one, a reality compounded by the fact that Romy has a lot more to lose: she is married with kids. Even professionally, Samuel holds power over her; one HR meeting exposing their relationship could mean the end of Romy’s career and reputation entirely. The stakes are high, and that is exactly what excites Romy in the first place. However, when everything blows up and the truth is revealed, we see that nothing really happens — the stakes weren’t so high after all. Samuel conveniently ends up moving overseas and out of Romy’s life forever. After Romy’s husband finds out about her affair, he gets mad at her for about a week before forgiving her. She keeps her position at the company, and if anything, she just ends up having better sex with her husband in the end. It is a bit disappointing, and cynically, I can’t help but yearn for more consequence and punishment. Not in the sense that Romy deserves to be punished for pursuing her sexual fantasies, but for engaging in an inappropriate relationship with a subordinate, cheating on her husband, and involving her kids in the blowup. If the promise of punishment was the real draw to the relationship, how come there wasn’t any?
“Babygirl” also hints at commentary on generational differences in understanding sex and relationships, but never says anything truly interesting. In one scene, Romy catches her daughter messing around with another girl despite having a girlfriend. When confronted, her daughter casually brushes it off as “just having fun,” pointing toward a potential nuanced exploration of the younger generation’s approach to relationships outside of traditional monogamy. However, it never takes the commentary any further than just, “it’s chill to have a girlfriend but also kiss other girls.”
Similarly, in the scene where Samuel confronts Romy’s husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), Samuel argues that Jacob fundamentally doesn’t understand the nature of his and Romy’s relationship. Samuel’s explanation of the affair sends Jacob into a panic attack that Samuel calms him down from in a strangely intimate fashion — but that’s it. The scene just ends when it feels like something else needed to happen. Perhaps Samuel and Jacob could have pulled a “Challengers” and kissed — the tension was certainly there, and doing so would add much more nuance to the conversation. However, we don’t get anything more than, “you just don’t get it,” and nothing actually interesting happens.
“Babygirl” promises a lot of things, but it falls short of achieving most of them. It’s an erotic thriller that is uncomfortable in its eroticism and not quite thrilling or interesting at all. It spends more time trying to get the audience hot and heavy than to actually say or be anything meaningful. “Babygirl” feels half-baked and rushed. Its fetishization of dairy is just campy enough to save it from being another “Fifty Shades of Grey.” Nonetheless, the film’s stellar soundtrack and eye-candy cast still makes for a fun — and freaky — watch. Despite its pitfalls, “Babygirl” is engaging enough to earn a place in my annual Christmas movie rotation.
Rate: 3.5/5
