Thursday, February 13, 2025

Movie Review: ‘Babygirl’ is a Modern Revision of the Erotic Thriller by Halina Reijn


Director: Halina Reijn
Writer: Halina Reijn
Stars: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas

Synopsis: A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.


The erotic thriller is a lost art. Alongside screwball comedies and westerns, these types of films were made in spades during a certain point in time and took the world by storm. In the case of erotic thrillers, that time was the ‘80s and ‘90s. The way they shocked the world was by breaking societal stigmas, exploring sexual liberation, and tethering to the taboo and provocative to ease the audience into wanting more because it is out of the norm of reality. Once hidden and obscured, desires are now part of a mental chess game between two, or sometimes even more, players who find ways to get what they want; either by manipulation and seduction or the stripping of power or a change in roles and gender norms. 

Babygirl' Review: Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson in Dark Thriller

The best this subgenre has to offer explores this multifaceted psychological and physical breakdown; to quote St. Vincent, it is “masseduction” (“mass seduction”) and “mass destruction” via the rearrangement of a person’s mind, body, and soul. Paul Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (and The Fourth Man). Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat. And so many others did that very thing of confounding the audience by secretly dissecting the frowned-upon societal norms of the times in which they were made. However, the ones made since that peak era of the ‘80s and ‘90s lack the expository feeling and psychological depth that made the classic or acclaimed erotic thrillers so enthralling, spicy, and complex. As with everything, there are always exceptions. 

Some of the subgenre’s masters are still producing, although not as effectively, like the aforementioned Verhoeven with The Black Book and Adrian Lyne with Deep Water, a film that many rejected thoroughly. (At the same time, I thought it was rather quite adept.) However, they are not great examples of what erotic thrillers have to offer, at least to their standards. Many have come and gone, trying to capture what once was. But it wasn’t until now that we got a proper erotic thriller with a modernist view with Halina Reijn’s superb and tightly constructed Babygirl. Reijn, who teams up with A24 again after Bodies Bodies Bodies, has a keen eye for depicting the high life of society, whether it is super rich kids with nothing but fake friends in the aforementioned satirical whodunnit or a high-balling CEO in her latest work. 

Her cinematic interpretation has heightened a notch to give it a little punch and interlace comedic pandering with dramatic notions to the story slowly turning on itself by reconfiguring the dynamics within the group of characters. But it isn’t exaggerated to the degree that it removes her film’s humanity or hinders the mind games at play. Although she has two films under this modern American culture examination belt, her prior work has some of the same sensibilities, via a look onto her home country and with a more insider lens, rather than the outsider one, she partakes in these two A24-backed features. 

Babygirl' Movie 2024 Cast: Nicole Kidman, Antonio Banderas & More –  Hollywood Life

Since she looks from the outside in, it creates a disparity between the many approaches her work might take, much like Verhoeven himself. And in Babygirl, this view paves the way for this story–about a wealthy woman becoming seduced by her way younger intern–to tap into the universal feeling of repressed desires and beauty conformities amidst aging through the key elements of which erotic thrillers consist. Think of Secretary, but with A-levels and switch the brooding tone of Maggie Gyllenhaal’s Lee Holloway for fulfillment and empowerment. This, and much more, makes Halina Reijn’s Babygirl a tactful dramatic piece, with Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson delivering top performances–a cherry on top of the kinky sundae. A surprising turn and glimpses at a potential rise for erotic thrillers in today’s age. 

In Babygirl, Nicole Kidman plays Romy, a wealthy CEO of a company in New York that has her living a lavish life in a townhouse with her two daughters and husband, a theatre director named Jacob (Antonio Banderas). Through thick and thin, they have spent twenty years together during the ups and downs. The two are devoted to each other plenty; Romy and Jacob have built a life many dream of having and earned it through blood, sweat, and tears. At least in that regard, their relationship is flawless and seemingly perfect. Romantically and intimately, there are plenty of cracks–fractures that haven’t been treated in this two-decade romance. Jacob hasn’t been able to fulfill Romy sexually, never giving her an orgasm, one she has longed for. It has been frustrating for Romy that the man she loves, the father of her lovely daughters, can’t please her on that side of the relationship. 

That is where the new, young, and handsome intern, Samuel (Harris Dickinson), comes into play. As soon as he enters the picture, all eyes, including the camera, are on him, a target of desire for everyone around him. The camera, knowingly so, frames Dickinson like such a token of pleasure, although with a subdued tone initially, only to increase in intensity as the whole control in Babygirl spices up and the heat feels like a 4D experience. And so the two leading players in this “ring of fire” are introduced, glazing each other from afar from head to toe. With just a look, Kidman expresses everything going on in her mind. The confusion of desire is in a battle against her suppressed fantasies. 

Kidman plays Romy in this beginning strand with a strictness to her, more poised and stiff, while adopting a more playful persona later in the film, effortlessly weaving through the complex emotions and dynamics her character engages in. The Australian actress has had more than a handful of tricky roles with even trickier personalities. But when she plays characters such as Alice in Eyes Wide Shut, Grace in Dogville, or Evelyn in Stoker–just to name a few because this list is long–that is when she is in her bag. These characters have dual or even chameleonic traits with suppressed or concealed emotions, allowing Kidman to slowly unearth the character from the grave they are in, the arduous sensation of being unable to express the longing or yearning contained inside. And her Romy is yet another addition to this medley. 

Babygirl: Trailer 2

Needless to say, something starts to boil between Romy and Samuel, much like the aforementioned Secretary, albeit without the brooding tied to the relationship between Lee Holloway (Gyllenhaal) and Mr. Grey (James Spader) and their roles are reversed–Romy being the financial power. At the same time, Samuel has control emotionally. This switch from the regularly seen gender roles in erotic thrillers, as well as the tethering between accepting and delivering pleasure, is one of the ways in which Reijn gives Babygirl this modern glance at consent and desires. She questions such psychologically complex scenarios in which Samuel and Romy conjointly and separately explore and divulge their boundaries as they confront ethical and moral dilemmas, the two-sided package that makes erotic thrillers contain depth. 

Babygirl is a film about comfort zones and moral judgments. The former helps express their yearning, and Reijn absolves the latter in a key scene where Romy and her daughter converse and understand each other about the situation. The Dutch director also dissects today’s society with Sophie Wilde’s character, Esme, Romy’s assistant, and the personification of Gen Z’s political correctness and moral compass. Just like in Bodies Bodies Bodies, Reijn uses the contradictions and strictness of today’s generation to smear the complexities of the affair Romy and Samuel have into a more present, playful context. Instead of influencers and rich kids, it is the play for power within the workplace relationships. It is in these scenarios where Babygirl distances itself from the erotic thriller that came before, gaining a personality and uniqueness in the process. 

This revision of a last subgenre that many directors have tried to revive by breaking modern ideologies and the view on disruptive or acceptable behavior contains tons of layers, even if, by a single glance, such is not the case. Reijn continues her streak of dissections of modern American society. Yet, this time, there’s a more keen, fascinating look at the tricky topic that makes today’s news reels plenty by breaking the mold of a subgenre that was predominant before.

Grade: A-

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