Film Review: BABYGIRL (2024): Halina Reijn’s Latest is a Wild but Unsatisfying Drama Showcasing a Daring Turn by Nicole Kidman
Babygirl Review
Babygirl (2024) Film Review, a movie written and directed by Halina Reijn and starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly, Victor Slezak, Leslie Silva, Gaite Jansen, Robert Farrior, Bartley Booz, Anoop Desai, Gabrielle Policano, Gabriela Torres, Izabel Mar, Max O’Herlihy and Michael Kirchmann.
Director Halina Reijn stunned the movie world at Sundance with the wildly entertaining 2022 suspense film, Bodies Bodies Bodies. Reijn is back with another provocative thriller with the new picture, Babygirl, which stars an actress who is, without a doubt, unafraid to take risks: Nicole Kidman. However, despite being brave beyond a reasonable doubt, this new movie falters in several respects and doesn’t connect with the viewer the way it should despite its twisty plot and thought-provoking sex scenes.
Academy Award winner, Kidman, plays Romy, a middle-aged CEO of an Amazon-type business that specializes in robotic intervention. She eventually begins a torrid affair with an intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson) and Romy begins to discover, within herself, a certain level of sexual excitement that she seemingly yearns to experience in her life. Reijn’s film is certainly going to provoke sensitive conversations but it lacks the finesse that could have made it more enjoyable as a drama and as a thriller.
We meet Romy who is married to the handsome Jacob (Antonio Banderas). They engage in steamy sex right at the beginning of the picture but Romy still feels unfulfilled after the act concludes and she retreats to another room to watch a spicy video and finish satisfying herself. Romy has two charismatic daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly), and seems to have a pretty good life save for the lack of being able to have a satisfying climax during sexual relations.
Romy is soon approached on the street by a loose dog. She is “saved,” so to speak, by a young, handsome new intern for her company, Samuel. When asked how many cups of coffee the high-powered Romy drinks, she responds by not being willing to give a definitive answer before resorting to the truth. Romy is a delicate woman who hesitates at first on certain things but she is about to explode. Samuel asks Romy to be his mentor and, soon, they’re going to hotels and having a secret affair. Milk and cookies are brought into the mix to try to heat things up but the movie still feels icy cold in terms of its emotional impact on the audience.
Meanwhile, another female employee, Esme (Sophie Wilde) further complicates a delicate situation through her involvement with Samuel. Wilde’s character’s function in the picture doesn’t really seem to make sense given the nature of the affair between Romy and Samuel but Wilde is so good in the role she plays that she makes a very effective third wheel to the drama that occurs throughout the picture.
Kidman takes the role and creates something very unique here. It’s impossible to deny the quality of her performance. In any other year, this role could have been an Oscar contender but it could ultimately prove to be too risque for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences given the conservative climate we are accustomed to these days. Kidman’s ability to appear natural in the sex scenes is to be commended and she almost seems like a female Jekyll and Hyde in terms of the way she creates her character here and develops her emotionally. This is probably one of the most difficult roles she has ever taken on and she gives it her all and then some.
On the other hand, it felt that Dickinson was either miscast or too young for the role. Almost 30 years Kidman’s junior, Dickinson has some line deliveries that feel unnatural and, sometimes, Dickinson and Kidman’s chemistry stumbles and feels both unnatural and unrealistic, for whatever reason. It needed to be more believable to get the movie at the level it was aiming for. It does shock but rarely does it fascinate to the extent it could have and Dickinson’s shortcomings are partially the reason why whether the actor can be faulted for that or not.
Babygirl shines whenever Banderas appears on-screen. This could be one of Banderas’ most career-defining roles of late and the actor excels playing opposite the always reliable Kidman. Those scenes with Banderas are more enjoyable to watch than many of the others in the picture. Banderas has always let his demeanor and personality define his performances and his work in this film is no exception to that rule.
Halina Reijn is a film-making genius as proved by the genuine quality of her first English language film, Bodies Bodies Bodies. Babygirl is an example of what happens when a smart director gets to do a passion project. This new picture is clearly capable of entertaining and frustrating viewers simultaneously but, in the end, Reijn’s script goes off the deep end with one too many outrageous scenes thrown in willy-nilly for the film’s own good.
That being said, Time magazine just named Babygirl the best film of the year. That may be even more frustrating than the film itself because it implies that just because a movie like this one raises important and controversial topics, it should be rewarded for doing that alone. Babygirl touches upon the tough to discuss issues of sexuality but doesn’t solve the dilemmas surrounding the exploration of one’s own sexuality satisfactorily. Instead, it replaces the realities with fantasies that feel more exploitative than anything else. There’s validity to the themes the movie explores but the movie just didn’t do it for me. But, people will certainly be provoked by this movie’s themes and the message of the movie may work for some viewers. Whatever floats your boat.
Rating: 6.5/10
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