‘Babygirl’ May Not Be Your Glass Of Milk

In Halina Reijn’s new erotic comedy ‘Babygirl,’ Nicole Kidman plays Romy Mathis, the impossibly rich CEO of a New York-based robotics firm. She’s married to Antonio Banderas, apparently a genius avant-garde Broadway director. They have two teenage daughters, one of whom is openly lesbian and the other, who barely gets any lines, seems to enjoy dancing while wearing regional European costumes. They live in a gorgeous Manhattan apartment and have a luxurious estate in what appears to be Connecticut. But all is not well in Romy’s world. She has unfulfilled erotic desires.

BABYGIRL ★★★ (3/5 stars)
Directed by: Halina Reijn
Written by: Halina Reijn
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas
Running time: 114 mins

Enter Samuel, an intern at the robotics company, played by Harris Dickinson. Unlike Antonio Banderas, who is always telling Nicole Kidman that he loves and treasures her, Dickinson seems to know what Nicole Kidman really wants: for someone to tell her what to do. Once they make a connection, he causes tremors in her just by walking past. In one bizarre scene, she nearly eats the tie he dropped while dancing at an office Christmas party.

This is not an S&M movie. Once Dickinson finally slow-dances Kidman into the boudoir, he “tells her what to do,” but he is actually a gentle master. There are no hard-core accoutrements, no handcuffs or leather, other than a scene where he makes his “Babygirl” drink milk out of a saucer on the floor. But the problem with this movie is that Reijn shows that scene, the most kinky scene in the movie, as part of a montage, whereas we have to watch Dickinson finger Kidman to orgasm from behind at least twice, and for quite a while at that. It’s pretty erotic in YouPorn kind of way, but it’s not that dramatic.

Babygirl has some interesting things to say about What Women Want, but Kidman’s Romy is not necessarily an ordinary woman. She’s a powerful one. And the script, also by Reijn, seems to indicate that her power derives from her sexual repression. Once Dickinson starts telling her what to do, suddenly other people sense that they have the ability to do that as well.

This movie has pacing problems. It takes a long time for Dickinson to rev Kidman’s engine, and they don’t truly and fully consummate things until more than halfway through, which leads to a rapid, though not entirely unrealistic, denouement. It also skirts around making Dickinson’s character truly believable. We never see where he sleeps, and only hear certain details about his actual life. I found it surprising to learn, late in the movie, that he also works as a bartender at a fancy cocktail lounge. We see him in that setting once, and he never speaks.

Samuel is a bourgeois middle-aged woman’s version of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl. He is slender and muscular, lightly-tattooed, and wants nothing from his lady other than to pleasure her. He never says the word “love.” This would imply ownership. He can dance and mix a cocktail, and does what he wants when he wants it. We can see why she likes him. Who wouldn’t? He doesn’t ask her to run errands and demands nothing more than she drink a glass of milk when he orders it for her from the bar. That scene made me incredibly uncomfortable. What if she’s lactose intolerant?

We all walk around with certain deep-seated, inborn erotic desires that mundane real life cannot satisfy. Babygirl is the story of a highly-unrealistic woman who somehow stumbles into a way to experience hers in reality before she dies. And now we all know what Nicole Kidman’s orgasm face looks like. If seeing Nicole Kidman’s orgasm face is the key to unlocking your deep-seated inborn erotic desires, then please watch this movie in the privacy of your own home, but without the company of your sexy, mysterious intern who, let’s face it, is nothing but trouble.