Babygirl is a hard film to review. This is not because of its graphic content, but I’m personally not sure what the film is trying to say about its graphic content. This is not to say the recent A24 film directed by triple threat Halina Reijn is a failure by any means. Still, I do believe it’s fair to say that the film is messy in more ways beyond its subject matter, which centered on an extremely messy and almost taboo relationship between a CEO and one of her interns. 

The true winner of the film has to be its lead star, Mrs. AMC herself, Nicole Kidman, who delivers her usual “this film only exists and will be talked about because of how good Kidman is” performance. Immediately magnetic and relatable, Kidman plays Romy, a wealthy, strict no-nonsense CEO of a robotics company who is “happily” married to an artist with 2 kids, played by Antonio Banderas, Esther Rose McGregor, and Vaughan Relly. The opening scene features this “happy” couple making love (talk about starting with a bang), but once the two of them “finish”, Kidman quickly exits the room to her private office to, let’s say “finish up some past due work” (Seriously, starts with a bang). This lays out the whole theme of the film and if you’re not ready to ride with this, maybe leave and come back when you’re ready. 

Back to Kidman, her character Romy is an extremely layered character who never shows her hand. She’s always hiding something, and the moments when she finally pulls the curtain back just enough to get a brief glimpse into what’s going on inside make for an extremely compelling character. The film refuses to answer every question, much like how Romy would never stop to break the whole story down for you, she’s got things to do. This makes for a great dynamic with her husband Jacob (Banderas) who completely trusts his partner and never pushes to hard on things, unlike her new intern, a tall, brooding figure who pushes back on everything, Samuel played by the equally hot and tall Harris Dickinson.

Okay, so now begins the hard part of the review where I have to take my gloves off and come clean. Dickinson’s performance is so perplexing to me. I see what the film is trying to do in the broad strokes and ideas, but his character is the embodiment of chaos, impossible to predict and in a constant state of zig and zag. Don’t get it twisted, this is a very interesting performance that I most certainly don’t want to call poor, but I found it to be impossible to get a full read on his character which might have been the point. I’m not sure if that was the case, regardless the character was inconsistent, which some might forgive because well… Dickinson is extremely compelling. 

Unfortunately the same could not be said for the rest of the cast who are underserved and underutilized. Banderas has been on a run lately as a sort of super flex option supporting cast member being featured in dozens of films lately to various levels of success. In Babygirl, he’s mostly there to be the clueless husband who’s a different kind of hot and supportive, that you kind of get why Kidman has stayed with him for so long even though he’s pretty bad at sex. He’s mostly a stand-in, pretty much any male actor over the age of 50 could probably play this role, but he does get one moment to let his fastball loose and remind us that Zorro still has some juice in him. Romy’s two daughters Isabel (Esther Rose McGregor) and Nora (Vaughan Reilly) are equally fine, nothing to crazy to write home about, mostly here to support the two stars attempting to go supernova at the center of this film. Lastly, there’s Sophie Wilde, a spectacular actor from Australia and the recent star of one of my favorite films of last year Talk To Me, who feels like she should have been in the film more. Wilde plays Esme, Romy’s assistant, and her character really suffers from a lack of screen time. The moments with Wilde’s character are supposed to be huge revelations, but unfortunately, I found myself going, “Oh yeah, Esme!” every time she came back on screen. It’s a real bummer since I know Wilde has the ability to really make something of this role, but ultimately the film would rather spend its time elsewhere.

Much like my view of Dickinson’s performance, Babygirl’s filmmaking style is equally inconsistent. The film struggles to decide if it wants to be aggressively stylish with creative flourishes being most prominent in the sound design and visual imagery (which evoked the vibe of Challengers), or a very grounded, straight-laced serious drama with long takes and stationary cameras (which reminded me of the Fifty Shades of Grey films, which this film is admirably trying not to be) . A huge miss in this film for me was the editing, which felt extremely choppy at times with numerous, obvious errors that were painfully distracting. Again, like Dickinson’s performances, this inconsistency could be intentional, to show how this story is messy and inconsistent so as to push your boundaries in the hope that you will discover something yourself. Nonetheless, I found the inconsistency, especially with the editing, to be more hurtful than helpful. 

This movie is well, a lot. Definitely don’t see this one with your parents or on a first date. Or maybe a first date? It could be fun to talk about afterward, which might be the best pitch for why to see this film besides seeing Nicole Kidman put on another all-star performance. I’m no prude when it comes to sexual situations in films, in fact, I’m firmly in the pro “sex scenes in films” camp, but if that kind of stuff is not your bag, maybe skip this on in the theatre.

That being said, Babygirl is a film that attempts to tackle a pretty taboo and intense subject matter that is thought-provoking, which I will advocate for anyone to go see. 3/5

Babygirl, directed by Halina Reijn, tells the story of Romy (Nicole Kidman), a CEO of a major robotics corporation, who begins having an affair with an intern named Samuel (Harris Dickinson), which leads her to a journey of sexual reawakening and rediscovery. Starring Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde, Esther McGregor, and Vaughan Reilly, Babygirl is the latest film from the indie powerhouse A24 and is set to release on Christmas Day December 25th, 2024.