Movie Review: Hollywood Veteran Nicole Kidman Returns to Erotic Drama in 'Babygirl'

After watching Christy Hall’s Daddio earlier this year and Halina Reijn’s Babygirl out this month, it’s clear that Hollywood has moved on from #metoo to conventional passion and eroticism in filmmaking.

After all the controversy over sexism, sexuality and power imbalances, one would assume female writers and directors would fully embrace the female gaze and make use of the collective step forward in our cultural narrative.

But both Daddio and now Babygirl make me feel like the opposite is happening — that women behind the camera are enabling the male gaze instead. And its not even in a satirical way either, but more of a resigned acceptance, strangely enough.

Twenty-five years following Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Nicole Kidman returns to erotic drama with Babygirl as protagonist Romy Mathis, the CEO of a major tech-based corporation in contemporary New York City. At work and at home, she’s a successful and dedicated businesswoman, wife and mother.

But in private, she wishes that she could fulfill her sexual desires. When one of the new interns, confident and attractive Samuel (Harris Dickinson), shows an interest in Romy, she thinks he might be able to understand her needs in bed in ways her husband, playwright Jacob (Antonio Banderas), doesn’t.

Esther-Rose McGregor and Vaughan Reilly play Romy’s young daughters, and Sophie Wilde co-stars as her dedicated colleague.

In the promotion fo Babygirl, I was surprised Reijn didn’t name Jane Campion or Sofia Coppola as directors who have influenced her work, and mostly listed the more infamous male filmmakers of the 1980s erotic thrillers, like Paul Verhoeven, Brian De Palma and Adrian Lyne. But after watching Babygirl, it makes sense. There is virtually no message or theme to the film other than “giving into your immoral temptations might lead to consequences.”

None of the characters are interesting or likeable enough to follow for two hours, let alone deserve being redeemed by the end. Decisions by the characters are overly convenient to move the plot along, and the lack of male nudity compared to the graphic female nudity is distracting, especially from a film being marketed as erotica “for women.”

It feels like Reijn just enjoys shooting provocative sequences and not much else. It isn’t even that sexy or shocking. It left me wondering, “What’s the point? Some people can’t help being horny?” You could just go back and watch Campion’s The Piano (1993), Verhoeven’s Basic Instinct (1992) or Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat (1981) again if you want effective, well-executed eroticism in cinema.

Most disappointing to me are the two leads of Babygirl, both generally talented and mesmerizing, who have been better in other films. I felt Banderas was also wasted and underwritten as the perplexed, devoted husband.

Babygirl has an interesting plot and good cast, but it’s eroticism ultimately leads nowhere.