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Babygirl Movie Review

Babygirl is a 2024 erotic thriller film directed by Halina Reijn and starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson. This is a very daring movie for Hollywood today, but it’s still timid to me.

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“I’ve never had an orgasm with you!“

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A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a tumultuous affair with her much younger intern. I was looking forward to seeing this movie due to its supposedly racy content, but I ended up being a bit disappointed by the final product. Yes, this is a transgressive and to some even regressive movie for the US, but for Europe this is still mild stuff. It’s the type of movie that never went fully into truly sexy and graphic territory, which did affect it negatively as it’s all about sexuality after all.

I respect Nicole Kidman a lot for actually agreeing to doing this movie as most actresses would turn it down unquestionably. And her performance is equally impressive as a lot is asked from her and she did it all believably. The film isn’t graphic at all with Dickinson only being shirtless and Kidman being nude in just a couple of small moments, but it’s not just about nudity, but intimate and uncomfortable moments that were asked from her and she not just agreed, but she fully committed to those scenes, which resulted in such a stellar, daring performance.

Throughout the movie, her character is consistently grappling with her hidden desires and whether or not she fully wants to commit to them and you can really see in Kidman’s face all of those conflicted emotions of shame versus desire and fear versus passion. It’s a shame that she wasn’t nominated for an Oscar when she clearly deserved it for such a fearless turn.

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As for Harris Dickinson, I found him to be quite good and competent in the role. He was perfectly cast for sure. However, I found his character to be largely underwritten and nowhere near as complex as Kidman’s character was. He was purposefully mysterious and undercooked, which served the script to a degree, but was still frustrating to witness.

Antonio Banderas was cast here in a different role than usual for him – the victim basically. Although at first I found the husband character to be annoyingly naïve, they eventually gave him those two excellent sequences where he confronted his wife and then Samuel. These scenes were essential in highlighting the deep immorality and inexcusable behavior from the protagonist as otherwise the movie would be very questionable in its intentions. I also appreciated that the dialogue still felt realistic and not preachy with the exception of that one scene about different takes on sexuality – that bit was painfully on-the-nose.

Babygirl is at its best when tackling the sexual dynamics of its two main characters. In an era when women have to be empowered and dominant it was quite refreshing to witness a film that is all about female kinky fantasies that are inherently submissive. I hadn’t expected this going into the movie, so the end result was fresh and exciting. I just wished that they went further with this concept as those sex scenes were ultimately too vanilla and safe given the basic concept that is quite risqué. The movie is devoid of messaging for the most part, but the message that married people should talk to their partners about their sex wishes and desires is crucial as it would prevent unnecessary frustrations and even cheating.

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My main issue with Babygirl is its slow pace, unremarkable direction (Halina Reijn did a much better job in her previous outing ‘Bodies Bodies Bodies’), over-the-top dialogue and unrealistic plot points that were borderline pornographic, but in a cringey instead of sexy way. The whole script is full of plot holes and immature scenarios. Also, for a film that is described as an erotic thriller, I didn’t sense the suspense whatsoever. This type of material is perfect for the thriller genre, so the movie playing it safe and dramatic instead of thrilling and exciting was its biggest undoing. The soundtrack is also quite annoying and the cinematography only serviceable.