Babygirl Review: Nicole Kidman and a Committed Cast Rejuvenate the Erotic Thriller

Arguably defunct as a sub-genre due to changing tastes, the advent of online porn, and otherwise changing social, cultural, and political mores, the erotic thriller seems, at best, a relic of the past. It’s the product of low-budget, late-night, straight-to-cable or straight-to-video efforts. Sporadically elevated by a slightly bigger budgeted mainstream release starring ascending (or descending) stars, all but a few entries fitting the erotic thriller designation have long slipped into obscurity or have been justifiably memory-holed.

Reimagining the erotic thriller for the new millennium might seem a daunting task, and one unlikely to meet with aesthetic, critical, or commercial success. Apparently, though, no one bothered to tell Dutch filmmaker, Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies). In her second English-language film, Babygirl, Reijn achieves the nearly impossible. She reinvents the sub-genre as both an expression of and a not-subtle critique of corporate America and the systems of control thereof (and therein) that lead to repression, suppression, and oppression, specifically Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman), the ultra-successful founder and CEO of an automation conglomerate, Tensile Automation.

On the surface, Romy has everything that anyone comfortably ensconced at the upper echelons of a capitalistic society could want, including a loving husband, well-respected theatre director Jacob (Antonio Banderas), and two loving daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly). After years of marriage, Romy and Jacob still engage in vigorous bouts of intercourse, but the first scene involving Romy and Jacob tells an entirely different story: While everything seems fine to Jacob, Romy removes herself to another part of their home post-lovemaking. Jacob can’t satisfy her, at least not fully, so Romy does what any modern woman (or man) would do: She finds easily accessible Internet porn and satisfies herself.

In a series of masterfully conceived and orchestrated scenes, Romy reveals herself as the indisputable master of all she surveys at Tensile’s NYC HQ, wielding her power with practised purpose. She knows what she wants, for her company, her family, and herself, right up until the moment she discovers — or rather uncovers — that she doesn’t when an intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson, Triangle of Sadness), enters her life, first as a distraction, then as a nuisance, and ultimately as a lover, albeit of the BDSM variety (more of the D and SM, less of the B in that equation).

As with all so-called thrillers that get tagged with the “erotic” label, the combination of illicit sex, shifting power dynamics, and the demands of the plot (i.e., thrills) necessitate a series of twistsand reversals, leading, as expected, to violence (or threat thereof), and catharsis (e.g., life lessons learned or unlearned). In Reijn’s hands, however, what follows Romy breaking social, cultural, and yes, corporate rules doesn’t adhere to a formula or template. Instead, Reijn packs Babygirl with a series of narrative and thematic surprises, each one driven by psychological, emotional, and physical needs.

For Romy, control is everything, so relinquishing control, even under carefully circumscribed circumstances (i.e., the privacy of a hotel room), counts as transgressive and thus a combination of the irresistible and the inevitable. There’s a cost, of course, to Romy’s transgressive behaviour, both to herself and her sense of self (and worth) and more importantly, to her family, each of whom begins to suspect something’s askew under her no-longer-carefully-calibrated performance as wife, mother, and corporate CEO. The cracks in Romy’s persona inevitably lead to consequences, although Reijn avoids the easy moralizing and sermonizing an American-born filmmaker might not be able to resist. She does and to her credit, Babygirl is all the better for it.

Anchored by another standout performance from Oscar-winner Nicole Kidman (The Hours), Babygirl emerges as the best kind of erotic thriller, one that both embraces and subverts the conventions of a sub-genre, in turn, elevating said sub-genre into one less concerned with boundary-pushing sexuality and semi-explicit sex scenes and more with the transgressive theme of self-empowerment through deliberate de-empowerment. Buttressed by an incredibly strong cast, including Dickinson as the enigmatic Samuel, Banderas as the sympathetic Jacob, and Sophie Wilde as Romy’s ambitious executive assistant, Esme, Babygirl crosses over comfortably into bravura, must-see filmmaking.

Babygirl opens in theatres on December 25.

Read more about Babygirl in our interview with Nicole Kidman.



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