BABYGIRL
(director/writer: Halina Reijn; cinematographer: Jasper Wolf; editor: Matthew Hannam; music: Cristobal Tapia de Veer; cast: Nicole Kidman (Romy Mathis), Harris Dickinson (Samuel), Antonio Banderas (Jacob), Sophie Wilde (Esme), Esther McGregor (Isabel), Vaughan Reilly (Nora), Victor Slezak (Mr. Missei), Leslie Silva (Hazel); Runtime: 114; MPAA Rating: NR; producers: Julia Oh, David Hinojosa, Halina Reijn; A24; 2024-USA/Netherlands-in English)
“Unnerving contemporary erotic thriller.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Dutch-born but NY based filmmaker Halina Reijn (“Bodies Bodies Bodies”) is the writer and director of this unnerving contemporary erotic thriller. It’s about Romy Mathis (Nicole Kidman), a middle-aged, high powered, NY office corporate executive of a robotics firm called Tensile, a company that guarantees one-day delivery service by using robots in its upstate warehouse.
Romy’s husband, Jacob (Antonio Banderas), is a noted theater-director. She has two teenage daughters, Isabel (Esther McGregor), a lesbian, and Nora (Vaughan Reilly). She resides in a spacious and expensive Manhattan apartment and has a country house upstate.
In the opening scene she has porn-like sex with her hubby by straddling him and fakes a climax, retreating to her room to get off masturbating to a porn film.
Her cocky new intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson) attracts her when he calms an unleashed dog in the street, and she pays for a luxury hotel where they have sex. She submits to his wishes and then refuses to.
Things sour when she learns he’s seeing her executive assistant Esme (Sophie Wilde) and she has guilty feelings of her adultery–telling hubby even as a child she had dark thoughts. When Esme learns of her boyfriend’s other conquest, she uses her corporate wiles on her boss to try and elevate her position in the firm.
The steamy pic benefits from the way it’s a more European than American film, as it navigates over its challenging situations and refuses to be judgemental or a slave to strict moral codes or be resolved with a happy ending, as the beleaguered heroine tries to sort out the consequences of her actions on her family and herself.
It’s a spicy, entertaining, and smartly made and acted adult film, that reminded me in some ways of Fatal Attraction (1987).
It played at the Venice Film Festival.
REVIEWED ON 8/31/2024 GRADE: B
dennisschwartzreviews.com