As Flavor Flav once advised: Don't believe the hype. You've heard of "elevated horror?" Well, this is elevated Cinemax. Compared with the steamy 1980s erotic cinema that inspired it, and Catherine Breillat's 2024 film "Last Summer," which covered a similar younger man-older woman affair, writer-director Halina Reijn's film is clearly faking it.
Also faking it, in the opening scene, is this film's protagonist, Romy (Kidman). Her theater director husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas) has never given her an orgasm in 19 years of marriage. As soon as they're done in bed, she runs to another room, flips open her laptop to porn and finishes the job herself. Of course, Jacob is clueless about her dissatisfaction.
As the CEO of a robotics company, one of the few women that far up the ladder in tech, Romy is used to calling the shots. Her assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde from "Talk to Me"), wants to discuss her potential promotion, but first, she must introduce the new interns to the big boss.
One of those interns is Samuel (Harris Dickinson). Romy recognizes him because, earlier in the day, he saved her from being bitten by a dog simply by forcefully calling the animal to him. She's impressed, and maybe a bit turned on by the authority vested in him.
At her office, Samuel is dressed in a suit and tie. He asks a snide question that you simply don't ask the CEO of your company. Esme offers to fire him immediately, but Romy is distracted, either by the phone call she's receiving or by the dog whisperer twunk who just insulted her.
Samuel and Romy cross paths again when he chooses her to be his mentor. She wasn't supposed to be in the mentor software dropdown -- Esme put her on it to boost corporate morale. This is some place to work, let me tell you. You can come on to your boss or volunteer her without her permission and keep your job. Romy needs to learn how to fire people!
Sparks fly at their first mentor meeting, with Samuel and Romy battling for control of the discussion. Dickinson and Kidman sell this sexually charged scene, perhaps the only one that doesn't feel forced. Soon, she's coming to this place for magic, to quote Kidman's infamous AMC ad, engaging in a lusty affair. The couplings are satisfying because Samuel is willing to cater to desires she's afraid to openly acknowledge.
To ensure we're on Romy's side, "Babygirl" does give us a scene where she half-heartedly tries to get a confused Jacob to engage in one of her fantasies. He is disturbed by the request and can't give her what she wants.
One of the threats Samuel holds over Romy to keep the affair going is the good old human resources department. After all, one call to them and Romy's on the unemployment line. This turns her on even more, though it also terrifies her. Kidman does a fine job pinballing between lust and logic, but the normally reliable Dickinson can't keep up with her.
I must give credit to Reijn's screenplay for including scenes where Romy and Samuel work out the kinks in satisfying this particular kink. These negotiations are far more intriguing than their rote sex scenes or watching an Oscar-winning actor on her hands and knees licking milk out of a saucer like a cat.
And that's before the writhing dance scene set to George Michael's "Father Figure," a misguided needle drop that's funnier than anything in a comedy this year.
How this affair plays out, I'll leave you to discover. The problem for me is that, no matter how good Kidman is, I was constantly reminded of better movies. Adrian Lyne's "Unfaithful" (2002) comes to mind, which makes sense as Reijn cites Lyne as an influence. In that film, Diane Lane cuckolds her sexy grey fox husband, Richard Gere, with a younger, dominant Olivier Martinez. Lane earned a deserved Oscar nomination, and Kidman seems poised to receive an Oscar nod for this movie.
As for the talk of Kidman's "daring," I question whether any of these folks have seen her movies. She's always taken chances. She was in "Eyes Wide Shut," for starters! In "Birth," she played a character who kissed and bathed with a 10-year old boy posing as the reincarnation of her husband! In "The Paperboy," she went to the bathroom on Zac Efron and made John Cusack reach sexual ecstasy from across a room!
Written and directed by Halina Reijn. Starring Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonio Banderas, Sophie Wilde. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, Coolidge Corner, suburbs. 114 min. R (sex, nudity, profanity, George Michael misappropriation)