BDirected by Halina Reijn Starring Nicole Kidman and Harris Dickinson Review by Jon Kissel |  |
Sopranos creator David Chase did a DVD commentary over the iconic Whitecaps episode, where Tony and Carmela finally erupt after years of infidelity and dissatisfaction. While their fights are brutal and nasty, Chase says they could’ve been worse, as their sexual relationship stays out of it, which implies that that’s where he thinks all the most humiliating and hurtful ammo lies. Among other things, Halina Reijn’s Babygirl embodies Chase’s thinking, as it begins with a potentially marriage-destroying anecdote between Nicole Kidman’s Romy and Antonio Banderas’ Jacob. After they have sex, Romy sneaks away to masturbate, leaving post-coital Jacob oblivious in their bed. Otherwise happy together, this thing hangs over their marriage, ready to drop should the moment call for it. Reijn writes Romy as a secret pervert, in sharp contrast to the put-together CEO that she presents to the world.
Secret pervert though she may be, it’s not that Romy’s tastes are so weird. What marks her as the kind of perv who obsessively makes sure the door is locked is how solitary that part of herself is, sealed off from the entire world. That lasts until Samuel (Harris Dickinson) stops a runaway German shepherd from attacking her on a busy street. In a twist of serendipity, Samuel is on his way into Romy’s office for his first day as an intern, and he quickly leaps over any professional boundaries with questions that are too pointed towards someone so far away from Romy on the org chart. He keeps testing her, leaving himself vulnerable for her appropriate retaliation but, in a Duke of Burgundy-esque example of where the power is in dominant-submissive relationships, she indulges him, up to the point that he’s bringing her to the orgasms that Jacob cannot.
Kidman is unsurprisingly fantastic in a film that loves to put her through the wringer with camera right in her face. The door-locking perv gears are magically turning as she takes a long beat and considers whether or not to stuff Samuel’s lost tie in her mouth. Kidman took tabloid heat for getting the kind of work done that freezes her face, and whether or not that was an accurate description of her medical history, it’s had no effect on what she’s able to convey onscreen. The film is totally about Romy and the unclear-to-her reasons that she’s potentially destroying her life, and Kidman makes the character into a worthy center for this story. In a film full of precisely put-together women, she’s the most put-together, which serves to make her big gambles that much more tense and thrilling. In contrast, the costume design of Babygirl brings to life the tax that women pay in fashion and preparation with Samuel’s rumpled, ill-fitting suits and Jacob’s casual sweaters. As risky as Romy’s behavior is, some part of the film is saying she deserves it after a lifetime of intense body maintenance and clothes selection.
There are great scenes in Babygirl, especially those that involve Samuel testing Romy and what she’ll let him get away with, but these all take place in the first two thirds of the film. It limps to the credits as it becomes more about Romy’s marriage and proportionally less interesting. Jacob’s not Tony Soprano, who jazzes things up with a series of punches to the drywall. Still, Reijn is two-for-two in her English works and will hopefully continue with buzzy films that dare their audiences to not squirm in their seats. B
Kidman is unsurprisingly fantastic in a film that loves to put her through the wringer with camera right in her face. The door-locking perv gears are magically turning as she takes a long beat and considers whether or not to stuff Samuel’s lost tie in her mouth. Kidman took tabloid heat for getting the kind of work done that freezes her face, and whether or not that was an accurate description of her medical history, it’s had no effect on what she’s able to convey onscreen. The film is totally about Romy and the unclear-to-her reasons that she’s potentially destroying her life, and Kidman makes the character into a worthy center for this story. In a film full of precisely put-together women, she’s the most put-together, which serves to make her big gambles that much more tense and thrilling. In contrast, the costume design of Babygirl brings to life the tax that women pay in fashion and preparation with Samuel’s rumpled, ill-fitting suits and Jacob’s casual sweaters. As risky as Romy’s behavior is, some part of the film is saying she deserves it after a lifetime of intense body maintenance and clothes selection.
There are great scenes in Babygirl, especially those that involve Samuel testing Romy and what she’ll let him get away with, but these all take place in the first two thirds of the film. It limps to the credits as it becomes more about Romy’s marriage and proportionally less interesting. Jacob’s not Tony Soprano, who jazzes things up with a series of punches to the drywall. Still, Reijn is two-for-two in her English works and will hopefully continue with buzzy films that dare their audiences to not squirm in their seats. B
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