Babygirl movie review: Nicole Kidman is excellent as CEO caught in a torrid, toxic relationship

“Weakness” is not a bad word, the promo director tells her. “It’s good to show vulnerability.”

But how much vulnerability is allowed to a successful woman CEO? What if all she wants is to be dominated, especially sexually — a hangover, it is suggested, of being raised in a commune/cult? Jacob is coy about these sexual experiments she tentatively suggests, and Romy can’t press beyond a point.

It is then that Samuel (Dickinson) breezes into her clinical, cold office interiors as this amazingly insolent intern, who doesn’t treat her with any amount of deference, unlike the others. Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness) is, of course, a sight for sore eyes, and knows that. But for all that, Babygirl makes no real effort to show what explains his licentiousness.

In almost the same preternatural way that he calms a ferocious dog from attacking Romy the first day they meet, Samuel senses the want that hangs around Romy’s thin, ungiving frame.

Babygirl movie trailer:

Kidman is excellent as a woman who supposedly has it all, now risking everything for this torrid affair with Samuel, where he calls the shots. He is liberal with threats to go to HR if she steps out of line, and she meekly falls in. From Romy’s side it is apparent that the threats excite as much as worry her. And so, with some ifs and buts, goes their affair, with her lapping milk from a saucer on all fours to her accepting a toffee he holds out and licking it off his hand, to her watching him carry on calmly as she wrestles with her choices.

However, while Babygirl goes much further than that other celebrated film Substance in exploring middle-aged women trying to prolong their choices, before even that door closes, Babygirl is confused about what it wants to do with Samuel and Romy.

It takes a jab at power dynamics at work, and how it doesn’t just flow from the top any more. But the film is too centred around Samuel’s beauty and sexiness (George Michael’s Father Figure plays a big part) to let him transgress to real ugliness. This is despite there being very little to like about an intern who can apparently work out how many ping-pong balls can fit into a room down to the millionth, using pen and paper, but who is clearly focused on the shortcut he has via Romy to the top, and not worried about who gets hurt in the process.

It takes a jab at women and desire, with a comical scene between Jacob and Samuel discussing this as Romy sits nearby listening. But that is ultimately just secondary to the sexual games which Samuel lays out, with his exposition on her wants almost condescending.

It takes a jab at women as CEOs, with Esme (Wilde) voicing this one time too many as she urges Romy to guide her in her path. However, the way Romy is buffeted around by her juniors undermines that, as does Babygirl’s lip service to whether women in power behave differently – or can.

It takes a jab at successful women as wives. But Babygirl has no tension even in that department as Banderas’s rather obtuse husband does not pick the signs of a straying wife.

Babygirl movie cast: Halina Rejin
Babygirl movie director: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde
Babygirl movie rating: 2.5 stars