BABYGIRL
THREE AND A HALF STARS A successful CEO begins an affair with an intern, but who is taking advantage of whom?
DRAMA US English #BABYGIRL Starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson
If you’ve a thing for Nicole Kidman strutting her not-unattractive stuff, or like to leer at the twunky good-looks of Harris Dickinson (TRIANGLE OF SADNESS), BABYGIRL is the film for you. Halina Reign’s sexy sex-thriller is three parts airport novel to one part EYES WIDE SHUT; a low-carb S&M romp that’s made more erotically agreeable in that it doesn’t take itself all that seriously.
Romy (Kidman) is a high-powered CEO who is drawn to Samuel (Dickinson), an intern in her office. Bored of domestic sex life with husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas), she begins a torrid affair with the much younger man mostly, we assume, because he fills a void in her otherwise successful life. For once she gets told what to do, and she seems to like it that way.
The irony of course is that Romy is still getting what she wants thus nothing has changed except, irony on irony, everything has. It’s only a matter of time until the dynamic power dynamic runs its course and one winner will be left standing. The fun is in guessing who - Romy, Samuel or Jacob?
While this plays out in the background, the foreground is full of flesh and passion and flesh and desire and flesh and jealousy and flesh and, er, flesh (see above re intersection of Kubrick and airport novel). Although Reign finds time for some noodles about gender dynamics in the work force, #metoo and post-#metoo, mostly this is an erotic-thriller whose sparkling dialogue and pace recalls peak (or is that peek) Verhoeven.
Recalls, then overtakes to leave any creepy undertow in the past where it belongs. This is much smarter, much more in the moment as the witty ending reveals. Once Romy and Samuel’s impossible-to-hide affair spills out at home and in the office, the stakes rise unbearably high. Who best takes advantage of this messy situation is another treat from a film that offers many as it powers toward a rousing finale - especially if you’ve a thing for either Kidman or Dickinson strutting their agreeable stuff.
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