Babygirl review: Nicole Kidman is stunning but this film is woefully overrated
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I really wanted to like Babygirl. According to the glowing reviews, it’s an excellent film, and being contrarian about anything starring Nicole Kidman is basically illegal. But with so many great movies to watch this January (Conclave, Nosferatu, and soon, The Brutalist), the only person owed an apology for dedicating two hours of their life to the Oscar winning actress’ latest psychosexual drama is me.
Babygirl tells the story of Romy, the founder and CEO of a successful robotics company, and her desire to temporarily escape her perfect family life for an unwise-but-not-illegal liaison with her intern, Samuel. Played by Harris Dickinson, he must be the rudest intern ever to appear on screen: on his first day in the office, he instructs Romy to reduce her caffeine intake. I know it’s meant to set up the power dynamic she so clearly craves (I pity her husband, who simply adores her), but all I could think was: ick. In a real-life scenario, Samuel would have been instantly fired.
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Soon after, he buys Romy a pint of milk at the bar where the company are having drinks. He dares her to drink it using only his eyes. Romy guzzles it down in one gulp; when she walks past Samuel on her way out, he whispers the infamous words: “Good girl”. If Harris Dickinson wasn't so good-looking, his character would have quickly ended up on the sex offenders’ register.
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Babygirl has been marketed as an extremely horny film (the press images are of its two lead actors at lips’ distance, of her drinking a glass of milk...) but it’s mostly unarousing. Romy’s husband (the wonderful Antonio Banderas) and Samuel respectively bore and terrify her. The soundtrack is an odd mix of cult classics (INXS, Robyn) and White Lotus-style instrumentals. There are passages where Samuel quite clearly blackmails Romy into sex.
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