- Romy has it all. She heads a dynamically operating innovative company and lives in a luxurious house with her loving husband and two teenage daughters. Her organized life changes dramatically when she meets a young intern, Samuel. Will a woman risk everything to give in to her deepest desires?
- The main roles in the film are played by: Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas and Harris Dickinson.
- “Babygirl” from January 10 on Polish cinema screens. Watch the trailer!
Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman) she seems to be a fulfilled woman. He holds a managerial position in an international corporation based in Manhattan. It specializes in innovations related to robotics, thanks to which the rapidly growing e-commerce market is moving towards full automation, which is intended to significantly speed up order fulfillment processes. She has two teenage daughters, and her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas) is a successful theater director who is currently working on an adaptation of “Hedda Gabler” by Henrik Ibsen, about a heroine who wants to break free from the shackles of everyday bourgeois life at all costs.
Although Romy attracts admiration from everyone around her, She is tormented by two things – the passing of time and an unsatisfactory sex life. When a handsome, young intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), shows up at her company, Romy feels a thrill for the first time in years. She is attracted by his nonchalance and imperiousness. And the fact that he seems to sense her desire to give herself to someone who will dominate her. And although Romy initially tries to keep the man at a distance, she quickly succumbs to the temptation to enter into a relationship outside of work.
A relationship, not a romance. Because Samuel draws the boundaries quite clearly by informing us that he is not about emotional intimacy, but about fun and fulfilling mutual desires. And Romy, although he has been successfully navigating the world of ruthless capitalist economics for decades, forgets about Milton Friedman’s fundamental principle that “there are no free lunches”. And that the bill for moments of ecstasy may cost her really dearly…
The starting point of the film by Dutch director Halina Reijn may be associated with Barry Levinson’s hit thriller “Online”in which Demi Moore she played the role of the head of a technology company, using her position to destroy an employee’s life (Michael Douglas), who rejected her advances. However, the creator of “Babygirl” only touches on the topic of professional dependence and does not make it the driving force of this story. There is no Thanatos lurking behind Eros, none of the characters turns out to be sexual predators, and their game does not become a trap with no exit.
Because “Babygirl”, contrary to advertising announcements, is not a thriller, but a drama. A story about hidden desires, as well as entanglement and loss. Halina Reijn’s film tries to enter into dialogue with those made 25 years earlier “Eyes Wide Shut” Stanley Kubrick, who also explored the topic of sexual fantasies. Both films have in common the person of Nicole Kidman, whose “brave” performance in Kubrick’s work turned her into a cinematic icon of desire.
In “Babygirl”, Kidman distances herself from her modern appearance, which is partly the result of aesthetic medicine. However, keeping the creation fresh in mind Demi Moore in “Substance” Coralie Fargeat, it’s hard to consider Kidman’s performance as brave or groundbreaking. Just like the story itself about a woman’s right to realize her own desires, which can be found with much greater distance and charm in the comedy film “Good luck, Leo Grande” Sophie Hyde with an also much more daring role Emma Thompson.
Halina Reijn’s image is actually very conservative. And while the fact that in the so-called scenes without costumes leave more to speculation than to reveal, it can be considered a successful game with the audience’s imagination, then the the fantasies of the main characters turn out to be very disappointing. When the heroine mentions the extremely dark desires that have been swirling inside her since childhood and which she tries to repress, and when she makes an appointment with her lover for the so-called a safe word, we expect a transgression to match “Nymphomaniacs” by Lars von Trier. Unfortunately, there is no safe word and we do not even for a moment come close to the border of any perversion.
“Now I want to be your dog,” he sang in 1969 Iggy Pop in the now cult song “Now I Wanna Be Your Dog” by The Stooges. The 3-minute-9-second song is the best summary of the “Babygirl” plot, which unfortunately lasts an hour and 50 minutes longer.
5/10
“Babygirl”dir. Halina Reijn, USA 2024, distribution: M2Films, cinema premiere: January 10, 2025.