Babygirl
Romy is a high-flying CEO of a delivery service company whose new venture is automated robot picking. She is happily married to theater director Jacob, and has two daughters; Isabelle and Nora.
She begins an affair with one of the new interns at her work, after he saved her from being attacked by a dog on the street.
Direction
The look and feel of the end product has more of a ‘thriller’ element to it. It also is paired with ‘high quality’ settings due to the characters all being wealthy and having high end items around them.
There is one part of the movie in which the characters Romy and Samuel meet in a ‘dingy’ motel, which is the most realistic moment of the film, and the colour tones match the mood.
It did help that the film had a female director, and writer considering some of the themes and moments on screen. All in all Director Halina Reijn does a solid job behind the camera.
Cast/Characters
Nicole Kidman plays Romy; while her portrayal is sound – she has been in MUCH better roles in the past. I will admit, it was brave of her to take a role like this at nearly 60.
Harris Dickinson (from The Iron Claw) plays Samuel. I was surprised that he is actually British, and his true accent comes out only very briefly at times.
Antonio Banderas as Jacob gets my MVP. Not only did he take a supporting role despite his leading man status, he plays the role perfectly.
From the loving and faithful husband (who was once accused of having an affair himself), to the worried and empathetic when Romy is unraveling – to the heartbroken and humiliated when he discovers the affair. He was brilliant!
Screenplay/Setting/Themes
The themes within the film are very adult, and the movie itself starts with an intense sex scene between Romy and Jacob.
Romy’s entire personality feels like it is sex obsessed. She is unable to climax with her husband (despite a clear and healthy sex life). She wants to be ‘dominated’ in the bedroom which he is reluctant to, which leads to her affair.
Romy feels like she is oddly written, both personally and professionally.
Professionally, because at times her supporting staff are enamored by her position. One important secondary character even goes as far as telling her to never reveal the affair because the world needs women in power like her. Yet her CEO role never feels like it is real – or portrayed well, especially given that the company is similar to a real life company that rhymes with BRAMAZON. For someone who is a ‘busy’ CEO, she spends very little of the movie at work too.
Personally with her family unit, including husband Jacob (who she seems to be in a very happy and intimate relationship with), older daughter Isabelle (the token lesbian daughter to add a touch of wokeness) and younger daughter Nora who doesn’t really get much to do.
The conception of the affair itself is bizarre. Romy witnesses Samuel calm a dog down in the street, discovers that he is a new intern at her work, then after a Christmas party where he dances around – takes off his tie throwing it away – then conveniently finds it the next day – takes it and starts sucking on it!
From there, their whole dynamic together is written unbelievable, with Samuel’s interactions with Romy at times non-believable in the way he speaks to her; one she is a woman twice his age, plus she is the CEO!
This is followed by ‘the milk’ scene, the hotel scene where he literally treats her like a dog – and a montage of many moments between them that feel neither organic or sexy. The whole thing feels like a 50 Shades of Grey ripoff, and very anti feminist.
They also have an almost ‘game’ like relationship where one is in the lead or the dominator, and the other is the dominated; examples are;
She gets him to get her the coffee (her the lead)
he begins the dominatrix – him in lead
he goes to her house, but she ‘ends’ it – her in lead
he ‘quits’ / kicks her out of bar – him in lead
The “game” ends when the affair is revealed to be known about (confirmed) by Esme, and (alleged) by Sebastian in the final moments of the film. The Esme moment (although out of nowhere) is a decent moment as she begs Romy to end the affair, and stay as a woman in power. This would have been more effective if we the audience knew that Esme knew of the affair.
The Sebastian moment in the final moments are odd too, as this was a character never really introduced. He reveals rather expositionally where Samuel is, and hinted that he knows about the affair too.
Score/Soundtrack
Solid enough, especially during the montage of the affair, and then there is the moment of Samuel’s dance to George Michael’s Father Figure.
Overall
I would say this is more of a miss than a hit.
Some clunky performances from Kidman and it doesn’t help the screenplay is a fail.
3/5
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https://antandrymoviechats.podbean.com/e/babygirl-2024/
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