Do men understand women and the depth of their carnal feelings? Are men capable of harnessing, controlling and influencing a woman’s true desires? Is all of sex just about faking orgasms? There’s plenty of existential questions that Nicole Kidman’s Babygirl can leave you with once you’ve watched it with a reasonably focussed mind. (Side note: It’s easy to be distracted and not focussed when Kidman is baring her near perfect body in a dozen, aesthetically shot scenes that look like they’ll give the average man an arousal). But there’s also one pertinent point that most, informed and discerning viewers will be able to focus on. Could Babygirl have been a tad bit more entertaining than it was evocative? The sad answer to that question is a resounding ‘yes’. If you were here to get 5 or just 1 reason to watch or not watch this film, you must have got your answer. If not, read on.
Romy (Nicole Kidman) is the CEO of a robotics firm based in New York. Her assistant or under study, Esme (Sophie Wilde) sees Romy as that one woman who was lucky enough to make it to the top, into the elusive upper echelons of power, from where women are kept away. Romy’s success story is supposed to be the dramatic fulcrum of this erotic thriller. Once the audience invests in Romy’s illicit and very unique liaison with her office intern Samuel (Harris Dickinson), they instantly know she’s at risk of losing a lifetime worth of respect and credit for the sake of having a genuine orgasm. Not the pretend moaning and groaning she enacts while making love to her husband Jacob (Antonio Banderas). This is a genuine, with-full-abandon kind of sexual liberation that Romy dreams of experiencing all her life. Her intriguing office intern is able to challenge her facade of a ‘strong woman’ and bring her to her knees, literally. And that power play, turns Romy on. So far so good. But over the course of its 114-minute runtime, Babygirl seems to lose its focus on entertaining the audience in pursuit of making them think.
What writer-director Halina Reijn’s screenplay manages to do with resounding success is to make the viewer introspect. Are Romy and Samuel just two kids lost in a forest of adulthood fantasies? Are they two consenting adults who are able to overcome the limitations of masochism and morality? Are they two like-minded freaks who comfort each others’ insecurity by being bold and uninhibited? You might find yourself tugging on either of these threads or all of them, all at once. That’s a cinematic triumph in a way, that a film can evoke such deep thoughts from its viewer. But here’s the catch. If you truly want to explore the sanctums of human psyche and push the limits of morality in human sexual fantasies, you should read a book on it. When you engage in the act of watching a film, you seem to want to experience something more than just intellectual stimulation. Films like Tar (2022) or Blue Velvet (1986) or even Mulholland Drive (2001) go about evoking certain thoughts, while still surprising the audience with a dose of cinematic wonder. Babygirl, isn’t able to tread that thin line.
What director Halina Reijn’s film does manage is, that it brings out striking images and a portrayal of female desire and sexual urges from the point of view of the female gaze. Every frame, scene and shot is controlled and presented in a way that’s endearing. But unlike a quintessential, Tarantino movie, the dramatic verve is missing. What you do get is a performance from Nicole Kidman that can win multiple Oscars and leave even the most stern critic feeling happy. Harris Dickinson dishes out some intense eye-candy, too. Despite its technical guile and artistic flair, Babygirl still leaves you wanting for more. Perhaps that is the common thread between sex and movies. You can fake an orgasm, but you can’t fake the feeling of having a wonderful experience.
See Also: Nicole Kidman takes the lead in erotic thriller Babygirl
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