Sigh, I was hoping that reviewing Babygirl would be slightly better than what I usually have to sit through. It’s got Nicole Kidman in it and it’s an erotic movie, what could go wrong? Read on, dear Outposter, and we will see what can go wrong.
Babygirl stars Kidman, Harris Dickinson, Antonia Banderas, Sophie Wilse, Esther McGregor, Vaughan Reilly, Victor Slezak and Leslie Silva. Halina Reijn writes and directs, she is known for directing Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. That was so bad, I couldn’t finish it.
The Story
The story for Babygirl is basically 50 Shades of Grey but in this, the woman is the powerful one, but she’s still the sub.
A high-powered CEO puts her career and family on the line when she begins a torrid affair with her much-younger intern.
We open with Romy (Kidman) and Jacob (Banderas) doing the ‘devil’s tango’, in rather explicit detail. I say that, it’s not porn, this is art so there are no boobs, bums, or other naughty bits. What they are doing is pretty obvious.
Romy doesn’t ‘finish’, so she sneaks off with a laptop to the bathroom, watches ‘female submission’ porn, and finishes herself off. We learn later that Jacob hasn’t given Romy an orgasm ever, in 19 years of marriage.
Romy is a powerful businesswoman, and a CEO with a family and kids. One of the kids is a lesbian. You know she’s a lesbian from the first time you see her. It’s as if someone told the costume designer ‘Dress her like a teenage lesbian and make it obvious’, they did!
On her way to work, there’s a dog attacking people. It’s called off by Samuel (Dickinson) and he saves her. There’s a metaphor about dogs later but it’s as subtle as an air raid. I’ll come back to it later.
Anyways, he turns out to be an intern and they have an affair. He’s dom, she’s sub, and it’s all weird.
The Ending *spoilers*
To be honest, it’s not really spoiling Babygirl as the ending is as predictable as they come. Here’s what happens at the end.
Romy tells Jacob about the affair, he forgives her and then ‘serves’ her and finally brings her to orgasm. Obviously, as the woman, she deserves proper sex, a forgiving husband, and no consequences for her actions.
Samuel ends up in a hotel with a dog, training it. He deserves this because he’s a man who took advantage of a busy woman. She was distracted and taken advantage of by a dirty, horny younger man.
Him, being with the dog, like from the beginning, is a metaphor for how horrible men are. All they deserve is dogs and not a woman.
The other way around?
All the way through Babygirl, all I could think of was ‘What if the roles were reversed?’. If this was about a powerful male CEO, taking advantage of a young, cute female intern, it would have been branded as ‘disgusting, perverted and sick’.
This movie was not made for me, or you guys. It’s for middle-aged ladies that have a business selling hand-painted plates on Etsy and deserve a man. If this woman happens to have a man, and she’s not getting any, she should be able to have an affair. After that, it’s all forgiveness and cuddles from the husband.
If the genders were swapped and it ended the same way, it would have been disgusting for the wife to take him back! Babygirl is a feminist triumph and if you don’t think so, you’re a male, pig, sexist, blah, blah blah.
Overall
I have no idea why I watched this. I knew exactly what it was going to be and I was exactly right. It’s all about how a woman can have it all, in fact, they should have it all. If they want an affair, they can. If they cheat while doing it, their other half better damn well forgive them.
Obviously Kidman doesn’t get naked in the movie, we can’t have anyone sexualized in any way. There are a couple of scenes, one where she is, how can I put it? Just say it I guess, she’s fingered. You don’t see anything, but it’s obvious what’s going on.
Another time he commands her to get naked, and again, you don’t see anything. You can tell that Kidman has an amazing body, but she still covers herself.
The direction is not bad, almost like a documentary at times, but I will say the director wasn’t the cleverest person. After the opening ‘hump scene’, it goes to the credits. The music is almost exactly the same as the opening music to Eyes Wide Shut.
This is such a weird choice. I want to say it was done ironically maybe, playing off Eyes Wide Shut, where the ‘man’ is the focus of the movie. However, I don’t see the director being that clever enough.
Babygirl is a waste of time unless you’re a certain type of woman and not a sexist, pig, chauvinist, blah, blah, blah. That was a waste of my time to watch and review. 2025 isn’t off to a great start.
